 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 525, 16 September 2013 |
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Welcome to this year's 37th issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Ubuntu has always presented itself as an operating system for end users, notably desktop and laptop computers, so it might have escaped the attention of many that the project also provides an excellent server variant. But what do you do if you are just starting up with Linux and would like to build a website running Ubuntu? Simple - get the third edition of The Official Ubuntu Server Book. Jesse Smith is happy with the publication, believing that it "takes some difficult subjects and boils them down nicely". Read his complete book review below. In the news section, FreeBSD launches the first alpha of version 10 with a surprising array of new features, OpenBSD prepares for the release of version 5.4, Linux Mint delivers a brand-new version of the excellent MintBox, and openSUSE unveils a new image for the Raspberry Pi mini computer. Also in this week's issue, a discussion about the alternatives to the Skype voice-over-IP service and instant messaging client and an intriguing interview with the leader of Manjaro Linux, a user-friendly fork or Arch Linux. Happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (13MB) and MP3 (29MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Book review: The Official Ubuntu Server Book (3rd edition)
  Typically when I pick up an educational book on Linux it is with the hope of finding a text which will help introduce newcomers to the Linux desktop. On a few occasions I've found good books that explore more technical concerns, such as trouble-shooting Linux distributions when things go wrong or exploring the power of the command line. Not often do I flip through books dedicated to working with servers. Maintaining servers just isn't exciting work, or at least when things are going well it isn't very exciting. Server administrators prefer dull days over exciting ones and so the books dedicated to server maintenance tend not to be thrilling. However, for almost every rule there is an exception and I picked up a copy of The Official Ubuntu Server Book (cover pictured on the right) last week, mostly because of the author.
Kyle Rankin's name appeared on a text I reviewed last year called DevOps Troubleshooting: Linux Server Best Practices. It is one of the best books I've read on dealing with computers that are malfunctioning and it was a surprisingly easy read considering the complex subject matter. With this in mind I had hoped Mr Rankin and his co-author, Mako Hill, would take the complicated process of properly managing a server running the Ubuntu operating system and present the material in a simple and easy to understand fashion. I am happy to report that is exactly what the authors did and the result is remarkable.
The first thing which stood out about The Official Ubuntu Server Book is that it doesn't assume we have much experience when we start reading the text. It would be helpful if we have used a Linux distribution before and readers will feel much more comfortable with the book if they have used a Linux command line at some point in the past. However, beyond this low level of experience, very little is assumed about the reader's abilities. We are not expected to have worked with servers in the past, nor are we expected to be masters of the command line or know where configuration files are located.
The book starts by giving us some background on GNU/Linux operating systems in general and then Ubuntu in particular. We are given a quick history of Ubuntu's Server edition. Then we are shown a step-by-step tutorial on installing Ubuntu Server and, again, our level of experience is assumed to be approximately that of someone who has managed to stumble through an installation of a Linux distribution sometime in the past. The text then spends a little time explaining the Linux command line, file permissions and some other operating system basics. From there we get into low level concepts such as the steps the operating system takes to boot and how to manage Ubuntu packages from the command line. In short, the first four chapters are there to give us some background information, get us up and running with a fresh installation and show us how to perform a few basic tasks from the command line. After that we get into the interesting server stuff.
Chapter Five is where a great deal of the action is and this chapter is probably what will make the book really worth while for most readers. This chapter explains how to install and configure several popular services. These include DNS, the Apache web server, secure shell (OpenSSH), database services, DHCP, file servers and a thin-client server. Setting up these services can be intimidating, especially for new administrators, but the book breaks down the steps, explains the configuration process and contains lots of examples. The text is clearly presented and makes the tasks seem much easier than most on-line tutorials (or even other textbooks) do.
After that the book explains basic security and talks about the various approaches to maintaining a secure server. What I particularly liked about the Security chapter is that the authors point out some of the pros and cons to various approaches. For instance, we are told how to automatically block unwanted remote login attempts and then we are told how this can blow up in our faces. At another point the text mentions a simple method for avoiding locking ourselves out of a remote server should we mis-configure the firewall. It is little tips like these that will save new administrators a great deal of time and heartache. After that the book gets into various backup methods, how to monitor servers and virtualization. There is also some overlap with the aforementioned DevOps book in that the text covers troubleshooting common problems and how to rescue or recover a server.
There are also some notes on issues to consider if the server appears to be compromised by outside attackers. Toward the end of the book the authors cover other resources (beside the book) where a troubled administrator can find help. At the end of the book we find several tips and shortcuts for server administration. These are typically short, one-line commands that an administrator might use over and over and, in doing so, save a great deal of time. These sorts of quick tips are things system administrators naturally start doing as they gain experience over the years and it is nice to see the authors passing along their hard-won wisdom to the readers.
Throughout the book we are given simple and clear explanations without expectation that we have past knowledge of server administration or even, in some cases, command line knowledge. In addition the book not only tells us how to set up services a certain way, but gives the reasoning behind the practices advocated. This gives administrators more than the blueprints for setting up a server, we are also given the building blocks for customizing the services and the ability to weigh certain choices. Some of these choices are more philosophical than technical, such as how to respond to an on-line attack or the level of access to give multiple administrators in a team environment.
If The Official Ubuntu Server Book has a fault, it is that (as the title implies) the book is entirely focused on recent releases of Ubuntu. Many of the steps and concepts presented are transferable to other Linux distributions, but some of the material is strictly related to Ubuntu and its family of community distributions. (The copy of the book I received comes with two discs, one for Ubuntu Server 12.04.2 and one for Ubuntu Server 13.04, both are 64-bit builds.) This does tie the reader pretty closely to Ubuntu (and perhaps Debian), but given how powerful and straight forward Ubuntu Server is to maintain, that may not be a bad thing.
All in all, I was very happy with the book. It takes some difficult subjects and boils them down nicely, giving the reader a way to quickly get services up and running. The miscellaneous tips provided are quite useful and will probably save readers a good deal of time over the course of a career. Server administration sometimes comes across as a dark art and it is nice to see a book which so thoroughly shines a light onto the subject. Whether you are studying to become a system administrator or just looking to set up a server at home to handle personal e-mail, I think this is a good text to get newcomers started.
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- Title: The Official Ubuntu Server Book (Third Edition)
- Authors: Kyle Rankin & Benjamin Mako Hill
- Published by: Pearson Education, Inc 2014
- Pages: 600
- ISBN-10: 0-13-301753-2
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-301753-3
- Available from: InformIT, Amazon.com and other bookstores.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
FreeBSD 10 with Clang and bhyve, OpenBSD 5.4, MintBox 2, openSUSE for Raspberry Pi, interview with Manjaro's Philip Müller
 The FreeBSD project has been around for ages, so it might surprise some people that its upcoming version will only reach number ten. Still, that's a big number that might look like a significant release in some commercial quarters, but it's just "business as usual" in the FreeBSD land. Nevertheless, it's a major new release, so can we expect anything breathtaking? The answer is YES. The widely publicised switch of compilers from GCC to Clang/LLVM is astounding enough, but there are more surprises, including the developed-from-scratch BSD Hypervisor (bhyve): "bhyve, the 'BSD hypervisor' is a legacy-free hypervisor and virtual machine manager that is actively being developed on FreeBSD and leverages modern CPU features such as Extended Page Tables (EPT). What hardware does it run on? bhyve currently supports Intel processors with Extended Page Tables. Processor EPT compatibility can be determined at ark.intel.com but most Core i3, i5, i7 and related Xeon processors are supported. Presence of the "POPCNT" (POP Count) processor feature in dmesg(8) will also indicate EPT support. AMD SVN support arrived on August 22nd, 2013 with FreeBSD svn r254677 and requires testing." Certainly an exciting item for the fans of FreeBSD, but this news merely confirms that FreeBSD is just playing catch-up with Linux. Or is this assessment incorrect? We'd really appreciate to hear from FreeBSD gurus here.
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 Still in the BSD land, the developers of OpenBSD have published the release page of the upcoming OpenBSD 5.4 page which includes the usual changelog, the song and other useful information: "This is a partial list of new features and systems included in OpenBSD 5.4. For a comprehensive list, see the changelog leading to 5.4. New/extended platforms - OpenBSD/octeon, new platform for systems based on the Cavium Octeon MIPS-compatible processors, supported machines include Portwell CAM-0100, Ubiquiti Networks EdgeRouter LITE (no local storage); improved hardware support, including inteldrm(4) has been overhauled; support for Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) including support for additional output types such as DisplayPort; Sandy Bridge and newer parts which previously had only ShadowFB acceleration now have full hardware acceleration including use of the 3D rings; wsdisplay(4) now attaches to inteldrm(4) and providers a framebuffer console...." OpenBSD 5.4 will be released on 1 November 2013 and if you want it, please head over to the project's online store for pre-orders or wait for the FTP servers to provide the installation CD images.
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 Despite being in the 21st century, buying computers with a choice of operating systems is still hard and sometimes even impossible, so it's our pleasure to report the availability of MintBox 2, a sexy mini-computer that comes with the latest version of Linux Mint. Clement Lefebvre reports on the distribution's blog: "The MintBox 2 is now available and can be ordered from CompuLab. The MintBox 2 will also soon become available from Amazon.com and Amazon.de for US and European customers. MintBox 2 is a mini-computer which connects to TVs or computer monitors via HDMI or DisplayPort. It comes with 8 USB ports as well as in/out audio jacks, eSATA, Ethernet, WiFi and Bluetooth so you can connect it easily to any network or device. The unit feels very special and very unique. It's small, about the size of a router, so it fits behind your keyboard, your TV and it's easy to bring with you anywhere you go. It's extremely sturdy and completely silent. There is no plastic, the case is entirely made of solid die-cast iron and acts as a heat sink, so there are no fans inside of it. It boasts 4 times the processing power of the previous generation and comes with a 5 years warranty."
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 Good news for those who enjoy openSUSE and who own the Raspberry Pi board - since last week a new version of the distribution is available for the popular mini computer: "We got a new armv6-based image for the Raspberry Pi. This one is only 82 MB compressed, so pretty minimalistic. The exciting new thing is that this was created using an alternative image building automatism which I wrote from scratch in three hours this morning. This means that everyone can now easily build his own images the way he likes and even branch and submit requests for changes that are useful for others. The way to use this is simple. This pseudo-package does not easily build within OBS or osc alone because it needs root permissions for some of the steps (chroot, mknod, mount) which could only be 'workarounded' with User-Mode-Linux or patching osc. The build consists of three steps that can be seen in main.sh." If it all seems highly technical, it's because it is, but it's also nice to see that openSUSE is making an effort to offer another alternative for the little computer.
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 Finally, a link to an interview with Philip Müller, one of the leaders of Manjaro Linux: "Like a lot of people, I've been watching Manjaro rise in popularity (at least according to DistroWatch and Internet chatter). Manjaro, a fork of Arch Linux, is often divisive, one of those distros that people either love or hate, with not much in-between. Building upon Arch is a bold move, given that it's a philosophy as much as it's a distribution. Arch is deliberately complex in order to give users as much control as possible over their system. Manjaro's goal of simplifying Arch can be seen as compromising that philosophy. But given Manjaro's popularity, it's filling a need for users who want a simpler Arch implementation - even at the cost of control over their system. I played with Manjaro for a few weeks and ultimately, it wasn't for me. But after exploring the distro and researching it, I was curious about the project, so I reached out to the project leaders, who shared my questions with some other Manjaro team members."
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Skype alternatives
Your-call-is-being-connected asks: I have been using Skype on Linux, but I don't like that it is a proprietary application. Are there any good open-source clients that do the same thing on Linux?
Distrowatch answers: There are a handful of software phones, with similar functionality to Skype, available on GNU/Linux platforms. Let's look at a few. There is Ekiga, formally known as GnomeMeeting. This application can make software-to-software calls, software-to-phone calls and supports video chat. Ekiga has a fairly simple interface and a good start-up wizard which helps new users set up an account. If you are fairly new to video chat clients and want friendly, graphical wizards that walk you through the steps of setting up everything, this is a good place to start.
Next on the list is Empathy. Empathy is a messaging client which supports text, voice and video communication over multiple protocols. It also handles file transfers on protocols which support the feature. Empathy is more of an instant messaging client which happens to support video chat than a Skype replacement and not geared toward making phone calls, but it is a flexible application and available in most distributions.
Linphone is strictly a VoIP client which can be used to either make direct calls to another VoIP client on the local network or Linphone can connect to users who use a third-party VoIP service. The Linphone software also has the ability to make calls to traditional telephones if the user's VoIP operator supports the feature. While Linphone may be one of the applications closest to mimicking Skype's behaviour, it is also probably the one application on this list that requires the most effort on the part of the user to get up and running. Users of Linphone will need to manually create an account with a VoIP provider in order to make calls to other VoIP users around the world.
Something to keep in mind is that while open source video and voice applications often play well together, proprietary applications usually do not work well with their open source counterparts. This means if you are connecting with someone else who uses open source software, you can probably use whichever conferencing software you want so long as it supports the right protocol. On the other hand, if your contacts are firmly set on using Skype, you may be stuck with running a proprietary client.
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| Released Last Week |
Manjaro Linux 0.8.7.1
Philip Müller has announced the release of an updated build of Manjaro Linux, version 0.8.7.1, an Arch-based distribution with a choice of Xfce or Openbox and now also complete with a useful 63-page beginner's guide: "On behalf of the Manjaro development team I'm happy to announce our updated stable release of Manjaro Linux 'Ascella'. The last two weeks we tweaked and enhanced our current stable release to make it even better. The live installer got simplified to make it even smoother to install Manjaro. Now we support optional Plymouth to be installed. Linux kernel 3.10 series is now used which gives you more hardware support than our last stable release. This release includes both update packs we released the past two weeks. Grammar issues and little changes make the welcome screen an even better introduction to Manjaro Linux." Here is the full release announcement. Download (MD5): manjaro-xfce-0.8.7.1-i686.iso (1,112MB), manjaro-openbox-0.8.7.1-i686.iso (686MB).
Bodhi Linux 2.4.0
Jeff Hoogland has announced the release of Bodhi Linux 2.4.0, a minimalist and "enlightened" desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu 12.04: "It has been close to six months since our last Bodhi Linux release - far too long! This is just our normal update release - meaning if you are already a Bodhi user and have been running your system updates then you already have all these additions running on your system. To cut right to the chase - you can find direct downloads of the ISO images on Source Forge here. You can obtain torrent downloads for the ISO images later today. Our 2.4.0 release features three ISO images to install from: 32-bit featuring a current PAE enabled kernel, 32-bit featuring a non-PAE kernel with older hardware support and 64- bit featuring a current kernel. This release features the Enlightenment 0.17.4 desktop, version 0.5.5 of the Midori web browser and the 3.8 Linux kernel. As always - our default theme selection is shaken up." See the release announcement for more information and news about the upcoming Bodhi Linux 3.0 release.
OS4 OpenLinux 14
Roberto Dohnert has announced the release of OS4 OpenLinux 14, an Ubuntu-based desktop Linux distribution focused on ease of use: "Today we are announcing the new release of OS/4 OpenLinux 14. With this release we bring many new enhancements to the OS/4 line. OS/4 OpenLinux 14 is the result of a year's worth of beta testing and kernel enhancements, and has easily outnumbered the team's current record of 57 beta builds with 135 beta builds that we delivered to our beta testers. The results have been astounding. One of the things we try to improve on with our releases is the user experience. We want to deliver a system that is beautiful, intuitive and that is easy to use for our users so with that we made some improvements to the icon set, we went with the Radiance and Ambience themes for Xfce and we also introduced a bunch of new backgrounds so users can beautify their desktops any way they see fit." Continue to the release announcement to learn more about the release.
OpenELEC 3.2.0
Stephan Raue has announced the release of OpenELEC 3.2.0, a new stable version of the specialist distribution for media centres: "OpenELEC 3.2.0 is the first stable release following OpenELEC 3.0 and is recommended for all new installations. Systems running OpenELEC 3.0 and 3.1 will automatically update to 3.2 if auto-update is enabled. Users who are still running OpenELEC 1.0 or 2.0 are encouraged to manually update to enjoy the many new features. Like OpenELEC 3.0, the 3.2 release is based upon XBMC Frodo (12.x) but 'under the hood' it includes many notable changes: many improvements, feature enhancements and bug fixes to XBMC Frodo including a number of backports from Gotham and speed improvements for RaspberryPi users; Linux kernel 3.10, bringing many new and updated drivers and improvements; Mesa 9.2; ALSA 1.0.27...." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information and screenshots.
Beyond Linux From Scratch 7.4
Bruce Dubbs has announced the release of Beyond Linux From Scratch (BLFS) 7.4, a book that extends the Linux From Scratch (LFS) project with extra software. It provides step-by-step instructions for compiling open-source software and building a usable Linux system which includes X Window System, desktop environments (KDE 4.11, GNOME 3.8 and Xfce 4.10) and window managers, office applications, multimedia programs and server components. From the brief release announcement (as published on the lfs-announce mailing list): "After five years, the BLFS team is happy to present version 7.4 of Beyond Linux From Scratch. This version includes approximately 750 packages beyond the base Linux From Scratch version 7.4 book. Keeping up to date with released packages that are useful to users is a challenge. On average, three new packages are released every day, seven days a week. As of this writing, BLFS is current. The vast majority of packages in the book have been verified to work in an LFS 7.4 environment, however a few (26) packages have only been built and not tested primarily due to hardware constraints."
Tiny Core Linux 5.0
Tiny Core Linux 5.0 has been released. Tiny Core Linux is a minimalist, but highly modular and extensible Linux distribution with flwm as the default window manager. From the release announcement: "Team Tiny Core is proud to announce the release of Tiny Core 5.0. Changelog: Linux kernel update to 3.8.10 with (U)EFI boot enabled; option to use vmlinuz + rootfs.gz + modules.gz or vmlinuz64 + rootfs.gz + modules64.gz (where boot loader permits); aterm, freetype, imlib2, jpeg and libpng factored out of Xlibs/Xprogs; glibc updated to 2.17 and recompiled against 3.8.x kernel headers; GCC updated to 4.7.2, recompiled against 3.8.x kernel headers and cloog, gmp, mpc, mpfr and ppl; e2fsprogs base libraries and applications updated to 1.42.7; util-linux base libraries and applications updated to 2.23.1; scm extensions have been dropped; fixed copy2fs bug with tc-load.... Note that due to factoring out and updating libpng, many extensions from the Tiny Core 4.x repository will not work with Tiny Core 5.0."
pfSense 2.1
Chris Buechler has announced the release of pfSense 2.1, a free, open-source and customised distribution of FreeBSD tailored for use as a firewall and router: "I'm proud to announce the release of pfSense 2.1, and our new Gold subscription. The 2.1 book and our AutoConfigBackup service, available for years to support subscribers, are immediately available today to Gold subscribers. This release brings many new features, with the biggest change being IPv6 support in almost every portion of the system. There are also a number of bug fixes and touch-ups in general. Three FreeBSD security advisories are applicable to prior pfSense releases. These aren't remotely exploitable in and of themselves, but anyone who can execute arbitrary code on your firewall could use one or more of these to escalate privileges." See the detailed release announcement for a complete list of changes, new features, bug 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 database
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New distributions added to waiting list
- Chitwanix OS. Chitwanix OS is an Ubuntu-based distribution developed in Nepal and providing support for the Nepali language.
- Huayra Linux. Huayra Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution of the government of Argentina designed for educational purposes.
- Ramone Linux. Ramone Linux is a do-it-yourself GNU/Linux distribution based on Linux From Scratch. It uses the RPM package manager and the default desktop environment is GNOME. KDE, Xfce and LXDE are also supported.
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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, 23 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 1156 (2026-01-19): Chimera Linux's new installer, using the DistroWatch Torrent Corner, new package tools for Arch, Haiku improves EFI support, Redcore streamlines branches, Synex introduces install-time ZFS options |
| • Issue 1155 (2026-01-12): MenuetOS, CDE on Sparky, iDeal OS 2025.12.07, recommended flavour of BSD, Debian seeks new Data Protection Team, Ubuntu 25.04 nears its end of life, Google limits Android source code releases, Fedora plans to replace SDDM, Budgie migrates to Wayland |
| • Issue 1154 (2026-01-05): postmarketOS 25.06/25.12, switching to Linux and educational resources, FreeBSD improving laptop support, Unix v4 available for download, new X11 server in development, CachyOS team plans server edtion |
| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
Ventoy LiveCD
Ventoy LiveCD is a minimalist, single-purpose live CD designed to install the Ventoy application on Windows system. It is based on Porteus Kiosk and uses the Openbox window manager. It can be useful in cases where the standard installation of Ventoy on Windows fails due to Windows-specific restrictions on some low-level operations. Ventoy, an open-source application that facilitates the creation of bootable USB drives from ISO, WIM, IMG, VHD(x) and EFI files, is a useful utility for those who frequently install or test Linux distributions or other open-source operating systems.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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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