 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 524, 9 September 2013 |
Welcome to this year's 36th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! A lot of people and organizations appreciate the cost savings which typically come with running open source software. The flexibility and low cost of Linux distributions, open source productivity suites and development tools make free and open source projects ideal for the public sector as government and schools often work on limited budgets. The down side is that many popular open source projects do not offer official support and users are expected to visit forums or mailing lists when things go wrong. Some projects are taking steps to provide commercial support options in order to meet the demands of large organizations. This week in our news section we cover two popular open source projects which have gained paid support options. We also hear about Ubuntu's new package system which may speed application development on desktops and mobile devices running the Ubuntu operating system. This week Jesse Smith reviews a lightweight distribution called LXLE which attempts to provide all the features desktop users will want without any of the bloat. We also discuss dual-booting on computers that feature Secure Boot and why it is difficult to find a good installation guide that accommodates all scenarios. As usual, we cover the releases of the past week and look forward to exciting new developments. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading.
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
First impressions of LXLE 12.04.3
 Lately I have been hearing a lot of good things about a distribution called LXLE. Hype of any sort, good or bad, catches my attention and I, being a curious soul, like to find out what has drawn so much interest. On the surface LXLE, which stands for Lubuntu Extra Life Extension, doesn't come across as a particularly unusual distribution. The project is based on Lubuntu 12.04 (a long-term support release). The distribution ships with the small LXDE graphical interface, which allows the distribution to run on low-resource hardware. According to the project's website, LXLE maintains up-to-date applications on top of a stable Lubuntu core. The website goes on to say LXLE comes with multimedia support out of the box, features many useful applications and should be able to function as a "drop-in" replacement for Microsoft Windows. While I found the drop-in replacement claim to be a bold one, the idea of having a conservative Lubuntu core, a lightweight desktop and modern versions of applications greatly appealed to me and so I downloaded a copy.
The LXLE distribution is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit builds. The ISO files on the project's website are approximately 1.3GB in size. Booting from this media brings up a boot menu which asks if we would like to run the distribution from the live media or launch the system installer. I opted to try the live desktop environment. The system boots surprisingly quickly and brings us to a LXDE desktop with beautiful background wallpaper. Each time the system boots we see a different high-resolution background image and they are all lovely, in my opinion. I don't think I've ever spent as much of my week looking at my desktop background.
By default the application menu, quick-launch buttons and task switcher sit at the bottom of the display. An icon for launching the system installer sits in the upper-left corner of the desktop. In the upper-right corner of the display we find a panel which displays memory and CPU statistics. I was happy to find that there is a button in the system tray for hiding this statistics panel as its steady updates may be distracting to users. Over on the left side of the screen is a hidden panel and moving the mouse pointer close to the left edge of the display reveals a collection of quick-launch buttons which will open commonly used programs, such as the Firefox web browser and the distribution's package manager.
The LXLE system installer is the same used by Lubuntu, Ubuntu and the rest of the Ubuntu family. We are walked through selecting our preferred language, confirming our keyboard's layout, partitioning the disk and creating a user account. The process is all quite friendly and smooth. I quite like the way disk partitioning is laid out and guided options are available for less experienced users. The installer went to work copying files to my local disk and, a short time later, I was asked to reboot the machine.
LXLE 12.04.3 - the default desktop layout
(full image size: 598kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
The LXLE distribution boots quickly and brings us to a graphical login screen. One interesting aspect of the operating system is it comes with several different desktop layouts which allow it to mimic, in a small way, other popular operating systems. Available layouts are called G2, XP, Unity, OSX and Netbook. For the most part these various layouts look approximately the same, with the same theme and colours. They differ in the placement of desktop controls. For instance, the XP option places the application menu at the bottom of the screen and OSX places the same menu at the top. These are fairly minor differences, but I suspect they will help to make users from a diverse range of backgrounds feel slightly more at home. The one layout which stood apart was the Netbook environment, which turned my desktop into a mobile-style interface with large icons on the desktop and filter tabs across the top of the screen.
I tried running LXLE on a desktop machine (dual-core 2.8 GHz CPU, 6 GB of RAM, Radeon video card, Realtek network card) and found the distribution performed very well. The operating system was fast to boot, quick to respond to input and properly configured all my hardware. My screen was set to its maximum resolution and I was automatically connected to the local network upon signing into my account. Running LXLE in a VirtualBox virtual machine produced similar results, with the operating system running quickly and smoothly. The distribution used approximately 160MB of memory when I was signed into the LXDE desktop. This is slightly more memory than I would usually expect from a distribution running LXDE, but considering the various widgets, a background application checking for updates and the high resolution wallpaper, the extra memory seems to be put to good use.
LXLE 12.04.3 - package management and configuration tools
(full image size: 288kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
The distribution comes with two graphical package managers. The first is called Lubuntu Software Centre. This package manager shows us nice, large icons representing software categories and lets us browse for software in these categories. Clicking on an application's icon will let us bring up a screen with more details on the software or, alternatively, we can mark the package for installation with a click. The Software Centre window has three tabs, one for searching for new software, a second for browsing installed applications we may wish to remove and a third called the "apps basket". This basket shows us items marked for installation along with any required dependencies. All of the items in the basket can be installed with the click of a button. Our second graphical package manager is Synaptic, a popular software manager which focuses on individual packages. Though not as pretty as its counterpart, Synaptic works quickly and can process batches of package-related actions while showing us detailed status information. These two package managers pull software mostly from the Ubuntu repositories, but there are also items drawn from other locations, particularly third-party personal repositories (called PPAs).
LXLE comes with a good deal of software covering a wide range of functionality. Out of the box we are given the Firefox web browser and Adobe's Flash plugin, the Filezilla file transfer client, Claws Mail, the Pidgin messenger software and the Linphone software phone. The LibreOffice productivity suite is installed for us as are a document viewer and the Osmo calendar application. The simple FBReader e-book reader is available in the application menu alongside the GNU Image Manipulation Program. I found the Audacity audio editor, the Asunder CD ripper, the Brasero disc burning software and the Guayadque music player. There is a small app for watching YouTube videos called Minitube, the Totem video player and the Openshot video editor. The Rhythmbox audio player is installed for us along with the WinFF multimedia converter. Behind the scenes LXLE comes with popular multimedia codecs, giving the aforementioned media apps all the functionality they need. Several small games have been installed for us and we are provided with a full range of configuration apps for adjusting the look & feel of the LXDE interface.
There were a few surprises in the LXLE menu, including the Clam anti-virus scanner and Fast Forecast which displays weather information (defaulting to the New York area). I found a few administrative tools in the menu, including one for managing the firewall, one for working with user accounts and an application for managing third-party device drivers. Digging further I found Network Manager is available to help us get on-line, Java is included in the distribution and LXLE comes with the GNU Compiler Collection. The above software worked well for me with the only exception being an app called "Y PPA" which helps the user manage personal software repositories. I found it could list existing repositories, but also found the application would lock-up when asked to manipulate (add or remove) repositories or packages. Underneath all this software I found the Linux kernel, version 3.2, running the show.
LXLE 12.04.3 - various desktop applications
(full image size: 564kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Running the LXLE distribution this past week was, in my opinion, a breath of fresh air. The project's strengths are not in new technologies or revolutionary ideas, but rather in the way the developers present existing concepts in polished ways. The distribution takes a solid base (Lubuntu), a fast and familiar desktop environment (LXDE), all the modern conveniences and applications a user is likely to want and puts them together in a manner I found very pleasant and intuitive. The fact the distribution can present to us desktops with slightly different layouts and controls is a nice bonus, but really what LXLE excels at is being a "just works" desktop operating system. There is little glamor, but the interface looks good, there is a stable core, but the applications are fairly up to date. Multimedia, Flash, Java, developer tools, productivity and networking were all right at my fingertips from the moment the system finished installing. And the installation took less than fifteen minutes. There are two package managers, an easy point-n-click front-end and the more detail oriented Synaptic for experienced users.
There is a lot of functionality to be had with a comparatively small memory/CPU footprint and, to top it all off, the desktop looks nice, really nice. I only ran into two minor bugs, the weather app which kept insisting on showing me meteorological data from New York and the PPA repository app didn't work as I had hoped. Neither of these posed a serious issue and my work flow wasn't disrupted at all. It's not often I have a week which goes this smoothly, where just about everything works and my experience is so problem-free. The LXLE operating system is fast and I can just do stuff without distractions or irritations with virtual no setup time. I'm quite happy with what LXLE is offering and I think the project is well worth a look.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Ubuntu introduces new package format, LibreOffice and Kubuntu gain commercial support
 Jono Bacon, the Ubuntu Community Manager at Canonical, has been busy letting people know about upcoming features soon to arrive in the popular Linux distribution. One of the more interesting features coming to Ubuntu is click packages, software packages which can be quickly and easily created by developers and uploaded to an on-line repository. Traditionally, Linux distributions have not made a distinction between the base operating system and applications. Click packages allow for a separation between the operating system and end-user applications, opening the door to some key benefits. Some of the benefits of click packages are a more secure package format, fewer dependencies and better sand-boxing for an overall more secure experience. Bacon writes: "Our goal is to have this full system in place for mobile in 13.10, and for desktop in 14.10. This will all make getting apps into Ubuntu quicker, easier, and more rewarding than ever before."
One of the features Ubuntu has been working on for the past several months is Mir, an alternative display server Canonical hopes to run on all Ubuntu-powered devices, from desktop computers to mobile phones. One of the many challenges facing Mir is the availability of video drivers and the Mir team received some bad news on that front this week. Intel has stated that, at this time, they do not plan to support XMir patches in their driver code. A recent patch to the Intel driver comes with the comment: "We do not condone or support Canonical in the course of action they have chosen, and will not carry XMir patches upstream." Intel video cards may still work with XMir, though it will mean Intel driver support will have to be maintained by Canonical as their patches will not be applied upstream.
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 In an interesting move the SUSE team and Collabora Productivity have partnered together to supply commercial LibreOffice support. Previously, SUSE has offered professional LibreOffice support for their customers, but going forward the SUSE team wants to focus on their core product, the SUSE operating system. Nils Brauckmann, President and General Manager of SUSE, wrote in a post, "In transitioning LibreOffice support to Collabora, SUSE is ensuring continuity of excellent support for its customers and providing for ongoing investment from Collabora into LibreOffice. This transition will allow SUSE to focus on our core Linux and cloud infrastructure businesses, while helping LibreOffice continue its trajectory of growth and usefulness." In addition to offering commercial support for LibreOffice across multiple platforms, Collabora will be joining the The Document Foundation's advisory board. Existing SUSE customers who have purchased LibreOffice support will be able to continue receiving support from SUSE until the end of their current contract.
* * * * *
 Another open source project gaining commercial support is the Kubuntu distribution. The project, which marries Ubuntu with the KDE desktop, is a free community project. Users of Kubuntu will still be able to download the distribution free of charge and will have the option of purchasing support from Emerge Open. Johnathan Riddell, Kubuntu's lead developer, comments, "Emerge Open is good at putting together business opportunities with businesses. In our case we have a popular distro lacking professional support and Emerge Open are able to put us together with this office in England to provide the missing link." Support will be offered to all users, from individuals at home through to large enterprise deployments. Since Emerge Open is a not-for-profit organization any profit made by selling support for Kubuntu will be contributed back to the Kubuntu project.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
A tale of two operating systems
Needing-two-operating-systems asks: I recently had to purchase a new laptop and it came pre-loaded with Windows 8, UEFI, and Secure Boot enabled. I've spent about a week attempting to safely dual-boot Windows 8 with different distributions that claim to be Secure Boot compliant, such as Ubuntu 12.04.2, openSUSE 12.3, and Sabayon. My main hang-up has been that, even though I'd much rather have Linux on my laptop using all of the resources at its disposal as an installed operating system, there isn't currently a definitive guide out there for dual-booting a pre-installed Windows 8 computer with these Secure Boot Linux systems, and of course most distributors neglect to send back-up media with new computers nowadays (Windows 8 takes up 16 GB just to back up in most cases!). So I guess my question is, why? Windows 8 has been out for almost a year now, there are a handful of Linux systems using a variety of ways of dealing with Secure Boot, signed Microsoft keys and shim in particular, so why isn't there a really good guide, or guideline, out there for dual-booting? It's really aggravating to be tied down to a buggy, bloated system like this, and I'd like my freedom of choice back.
DistroWatch answers: Two things come to mind. The first is that, once Secure Boot is disabled (and you will have to disable Secure boot on most computers to install a second operating system, even if the second operating system supports Secure Boot), setting up a dual-boot system with Windows 8 and a Linux distro will be just the same as setting up a dual-boot system with Windows XP or Windows 7. From the point of view of the Linux distribution it won't matter what the "other" operating system is. You can use any guide which lays out the steps for dual-booting Linux with Windows.
The second issue is every OEM may have a slightly different implementation of UEFI and Secure Boot. Each OEM will have different steps to access the boot settings, different menus to traverse and different ways of disabling Secure Boot so the secondary operating system can be installed. (Some may not even require Secure Boot to be disabled to install a second operating system, but I know some do.)
Really, the reason there isn't one grand guide to rule all Windows 8 & Linux installations is that each OEM has different steps and requirements, which makes a complete guide virtually impossible to write and test. My own computer, which came with Secure Boot enabled, didn't have any documentation, no hints and no way of finding out what to do short of either experimenting or calling the OEM for support. To make matters worse, every computer my clients have brought to me has used different steps to access Secure Boot.
You said you wanted your freedom of choice back. Ideally, the way to do that is to purchase a computer without Secure Boot, but it is a little late for that. Another way would be to return your computer and get one that respects your freedom. A third way would be to simply disable Secure Boot (contact your OEM if it's not clear how to disable Secure Boot) and follow any guide you like to install Linux alongside Windows. You might try this one for dual-booting with Ubuntu.
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| Released Last Week |
Semplice Linux 5
Eugenio Paolantonio has announced the release of Semplice Linux 5, a new version of the project's lightweight and simple GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian's "unstable" branch: "It's our pleasure to announce the immediate release of the fifth stable release of Semplice Linux. Changes? Are there any changes or you just kept drinking? We haven't just spent nights drinking; we changed a lot of things and fixed many nasty bugs. For example, we added UEFI, LVM and encrypted LVM support in our even more awesome installer. So even if the NSA goes to your home, they can't retrieve your important personal data. And you can get easily to your favourite web applications via our new WebKit-based web application viewer, oneslip. By default we include links to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a beautiful Tetris game. Also, you can now further customize the features of your Semplice box. Other changes are listed in the changelog." Here is the brief release announcement, with further information available in the more detailed release notes for more details.
Semplice Linux 5 - a lightweight distribution based on Debian's unstable branch
(full image size: 493kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
Linux From Scratch 7.4
Bruce Dubbs has announced a new stable release of Linux From Scratch (LFS), version 7.4. The Linux From Scratch project publishes a book of step-by-step instructions on how to build a base Linux system from scratch - from an existing Linux system or a live CD. The publication serves primarily as an educational exercise for those who would like to learn about Linux internals in a hands-on, practical manner. From the brief announcement on the project's news page: "The Linux From Scratch community announces the release of Linux From Scratch stable version 7.4. It is a major release with toolchain updates to Binutils 2.23.2, glibc 2.18 and GCC 4.8.1. In total, 32 packages (of 62) were updated from LFS 7.3 and changes to boot scripts and text have been made throughout the book." Other changes include updates to Linux kernel 3.10.10, Perl 5.18.1, systemd 206 and Vim 7.4. See the changelog for a full list of changes, fixes and package updates.
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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 |
New distributions added to waiting list
- nOS. nOS is designed with easy usability, simplicity and speed in mind. The project is based around KDE and Ubuntu.
- arkOS. arkOS is a server operating system designed for the Raspberry Pi mini computer.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 16 September 2013. To contact the authors please send email to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, suggestions and corrections: news, donations, distribution submissions, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (feedback and suggestions: podcast edition)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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SAMity Linux
SAMity Linux, a live and installation CD based on Unity Linux, was an easy-to-use, fast and clean Xfce Linux desktop for home users.
Status: Discontinued
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Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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