 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 529, 14 October 2013 |
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Welcome to this year's 41st issue of DistroWatch Weekly! The Ubuntu distribution is well known for its experimental (and sometimes controversial) nature. The developers behind this popular operating system often push into new territory, trying new approaches to package management, user interfaces and system internals. However, with the approach of Ubuntu's next long term support release (scheduled for April 2014), the developers are planning a more conservative path. Read on as Jesse Smith discusses Mir, Ubuntu's new display server, and the community's reaction to its delay. We also talk about Ubuntu's plans for the distribution's GNOME and GTK packages which will likely be used by various community spins. In this issue of DistroWatch Weekly we talk about openSUSE's participation in this year's Summer of Code and the interesting results which grew out of their involvement. We also bring news of developments in the FreeBSD community where new file system and stack protection software are being introduced. Plus we offer tips on rescuing deleted files and discovering attached storage devices in our Questions and Answers section. As usual, we bring you news of recent distribution releases and look forward to new releases around the corner. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (26MB) formats
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Thoughts on Mir and the community
I realized this week I needed a break from sampling distributions. I love technology, especially when it involves open source software, but this past week I realized I'd had too much of a good thing. As I scrolled through the list of distributions released over the previous two weeks and combed my inbox for suggestions I realized few of the distributions jumped out at me. My reaction to reading descriptions such as "The last distribution you will ever try" or "Just works" was skepticism. Most of the releases announced over these past two weeks have been niche players and beta releases anyway, so this seemed like a good time to take a break, to take a week off from installing open source operating systems, to have a week off from taking notes on the Linux community's latest and greatest. This week I would like to turn my focus (and yours, if you will indulge me) on Canonical's new display server, Mir.
Mir, for those of you who are not familiar, is a display server designed to replace the X graphics software common to most Linux (and UNIX) operating systems. The Mir software is designed to work on desktops, laptops, tablets and phones. If all goes as planned, Mir will provide better performance and use less energy than X. The name Mir is a Russian term meaning community or the world (as well as "peace") and fits the naming pattern of other Canonical projects which include Ubuntu and Unity.
Right from the start Mir generated some controversy. Originally Canonical (and several other open source contributors) had been putting their development efforts into a new display server technology called Wayland. Wayland was also supposed to be a faster, lighter, less cumbersome display technology that would someday replace X on most devices. However, development on Wayland was slow and not going in quite the direction Canonical had hoped and thus Mir was born. Right away many people expressed concern that Canonical was dividing the Linux ecosystem by introducing a new display server, a technology which would use different drivers than Wayland and, therefore, possibly divide development efforts. There were also questions as to why Canonical needed to make their own display server rather than influencing Wayland's development, questions Canonical kindly answered.
For a while all seemed quiet, but then, during the month of September, Intel (a Wayland contributor) rejected software patches provided by Canonical which would allow Intel's drivers to work with Mir. This was a reversal of Intel's earlier apparent support for Canonical's new display server. The reasoning was not clear, but it seemed as though Intel was unwilling to continue support for Mir, either in an effort to avoid cluttering up their own driver code or because Intel's focus was on Wayland. Either way, it meant more work for the Canonical developers who will need to maintain the driver code themselves. Then, at the start of October, Canonical announced Mir would not ship by default in the upcoming release of Ubuntu 13.10. The developers had decided there were still bugs to work through, features to complete, and it was decided Mir would be delayed for a release cycle.
Given Mir's status this seemed like a reasonable move, at least to me. In the past Canonical has released buggy code into its products (PulseAudio and the Unity desktop spring to mind) and it seemed as though the company was taking a more conservative approach, protecting its users from experimental code, trying to insure a better user experience. Yet, for some reason, people's reactions have been mostly negative. Mir's temporary delay seems to be blood in the water for critics of the display server. Commentators are taking the opportunity to claim the project was poorly planned, that the technology is under-supported, that it won't be able to complete with Wayland, which has recently been gaining momentum.
As someone who does not have a horse in this race, as someone who does not care if his desktop is running Mir, Wayland or X, it has been a puzzling few weeks. It seems as though the community at large, not just a vocal minority of idle commentators, but active developers, are betting against Mir before the software gets a trial run. Intel's move, for example, of not only refusing to assist in driver development, but actively blocking support, is troublesome. Former Red Hat employee, Matthew Garrett, taking shots at Mir also strikes me as a poor use of time and energy. Critics claiming Ubuntu being the only distribution to currently adopt Mir is a sign Mir won't be successful seems to me to be an odd and unrealistic viewpoint. Wayland has yet to be included as the default display server in any mainstream distributions and critics are not complaining about its delay.
Most of us see the open source world as a place where anybody can scratch an itch, develop a new idea and release it into the wild. It doesn't need to have mass appeal, it does not need to sell a certain number of units, developers are able to create their visions and share them freely. At least it seems as though developers can do this as long as they do not work for commercial companies. The more feedback I hear about Mir (especially negative feedback) the more I get the impression critics are opposed to Mir not on the technology's merits, but because Canonical is behind its development. Ubuntu is a widely used and popular distribution and, when one is king of the hill, everyone wants to push you. The development of Mir isn't hurting anyone, it isn't being forced on other distributions (even Ubuntu community distributions can use Mir or ignore it as they like), and Mir is open source. Mir represents a fresh solution to a long-standing concern -- the imperfections in X -- and Canonical has shown a willingness to develop and even maintain drivers to prevent diluting efforts from third-party coders. Canonical has basically said they want to try something new, do not expect any help or cooperation and will not push their technology out to the public before it is ready. Despite their best efforts many people in the open source community appear to want them to fail.
Earlier I mentioned that my review options were limited this week as many recent distribution releases have been beta tests rather than full releases. My point of view is that developers should be given the time to get their projects to a stable release before the software is judged. When I review a distribution I try to focus on stable releases and I attempt to avoid reading other reviews of the same project and anything about the developers' personal lives. I want to evaluate a project based on its strengths and problems, as free as possible from the taint of public opinion or past releases. It's not always possible, I am human and flawed, prone to being subjective. Still, I feel the community at large should take the same approach when it comes to Mir. Perhaps the technology will always be buggy or maybe it will be stellar. In either case no one is forcing Mir onto the open source community as a whole, it is Canonical's pet project, and I think the community should be cheering them on for trying something new. Canonical, as with any other open source developer, is free to dedicate its resources to scratching its own itch and seeing what comes about as a result. I, for one, am looking forward to comparing Wayland, Mir and X over the coming year to see which one best serves my needs. When we have options we all win.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
openSUSE reports on Summer of Code results, Ubuntu considers approach to GNOME, new features come to FreeBSD
 The Google Summer of Code projects hosted by the openSUSE team have drawn to a close with some exciting results. Among the projects that were successfully completed are several useful tools and some fun applications. Some of the projects which stand out are tools for AppAmour security profiling, an application for automatically resizing LVM volumes as more space is required and a program for playing music stored on ownCloud servers. There were also interesting projects which included logging, a code repository review system and a campaign mission for the game Hedgewars. Congratulations to all of the students and mentors who took part in the Google Summer of Code experience!
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 The Ubuntu distribution is known for its experimental nature. The project is often trying new things: a new sound system, new desktop environment, new widgets and search functionality. However, the first Ubuntu release of 2014 is likely to be more conservative with regards to its GNOME and GTK packages. Sebastien Bacher posted a message on the Ubuntu Desktop mailing list suggesting that Ubuntu 14.04 (a long term support release) ship with an older version of GNOME (and its supporting) packages. At the time Ubuntu 14.04 will be released GNOME will have reached version 3.10 or 3.12 and Bacher is recommending Ubuntu stick with GNOME 3.8. Some of the reasons Bacher suggests for using the older version of GNOME are that GTK 3.10 "deprecates several options", the Ubuntu long term support releases should avoid cutting-edge software, and Red Hat's next Enterprise Linux release will use GNOME 3.8 so it makes sense to stick with a version where maintenance work can be shared by both distributions.
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 The BSD Now talk show is a podcast hosted by Allan Jude and Kris Moore which covers important updates and developments in the BSD communities. In their latest episode the hosts discuss the brand-new FreeBSD 9.2 with its ZFS TRIM support, driver improvements and dtrace administration functionality. The duo also cover NetBSD's recent flurry of releases, work being done on DragonflyBSD's advanced HAMMER file system and stack protection support for FreeBSD ports. They also discuss how to reduce compile times using RAM disks to cut down on bottlenecks that are typically encountered when reading from (and writing to) a hard disk. A lot of interesting file system work is being in the BSDs these days and it's worth a listen to find out what new features are available.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Quick tips and tricks
Learning-your-name asks: When I plug in a device like a thumb drive, how can I know what name Linux assigns the device? Like when I plug in an external drive how do I know if it is called /dev/sdb or /dev/sbc?
DistroWatch answers: There are a couple of ways to get the name of a device which has just been plugged into your computer. One way is to run the dmesg command. The last dozen lines of the output from dmesg should contain the name of the newly attached device. The name will not be displayed in the full "/dev/sdc" format, but will be abbreviated as "sdc" or "sdd". To see the last ten lines of the output from dmesg you can run:
dmesg | tail
Another method would be to run the lsscsi command. This command displays a list of all disks attached to the computer. Each row of output represents one device and each line lets us know the type of device (such as a hard disk or DVD drive); the label or brand associated with the device; and its name. In the case of lsscsi we do get to see the full name of the device, such as "/dev/sdb". If the lsscsi command is not available on your system it is probably available in your distribution's software repositories.
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On a regular basis I receive questions from people asking about the restoration of deleted files. I have covered this question in the past here and here, but I'd like to briefly go over a few tips I have found to be helpful. The first thing to do when a file has been accidentally deleted is to stop using the drive where the file was stored. Continuing to use the drive that held the lost file risks over-writing the data. The next step is to get two tools, a live CD or thumb drive featuring a copy of any mainstream distribution and a spare hard drive. I generally recommend having a large external hard drive that can be used to store recovered files.
Boot the live distribution from your CD or thumb drive and download a copy of the TestDisk suite from your distribution's repository. Next, run the photorec program which is a part of the TestDisk suite. The photorec recovery program can be run by passing the name of a partition to the application. For example, if the file we wish to recover is on the /dev/sda1 partition we can run photorec as follows:
photorec /dev/sda1
The recovery utility will then walk us through a series of screens asking us questions about the partition where the data was stored and about the type of file (or files) we wish to recover. The utility will then search for deleted files and save them under the current working directory. Any restored files can then be copied back to the drive where they were originally or saved on the external disk. I personally recommend saving recovered files in both locations so there are multiple copies of the data. The TestDisk website has an excellent step-by-step guide for recovering files and covers available options in detail.
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| Released Last Week |
PC-BSD 9.2
Dru Lavigne has announced the release of PC-BSD 9.2, an updated version of the project's desktop operating system based on FreeBSD: "The PC-BSD 9.2-RELEASE images are now available for download. Highlights: Based on FreeBSD 9.2-RELEASE; bootable ZFS boot environments - using GRUB2, any new ZFS boot environments created via the 'beadm' command will be added to the bootloader and available at boot time; te-written Life-Preserver utility, it allows you to instantly create ZFS snapshots, restore files, and replicate data to a remote system or mirror to an additional local disk drive; updated installer allows restoring the entire system from a replicated ZFS backup; new boot manager GUI, it allows managing ZFS boot environments and GRUB menus in a single location; switched over to CDN for downloads...." Read the rest of the release announcement for a complete list of changes and upgrade instructions.
Korora 19.1
Chris Smart has announced the release of Korora 19.1, an updated build of the project's Fedora-based distribution with a choice of GNOME and KDE desktops - and now also available in MATE and Cinnamon flavours: "Today we released Korora 19.1 which is a 3-month update to the original 19 release. Anyone already running Korora doesn't need this; however, if you are planning do any more installs we highly recommend downloading this new release as it includes all updates, a few tweaks and fixes a number of bugs. This release also includes versions of the MATE and Cinnamon desktops which we've created to gauge community interest. The 19.1 release features: all updates at time of release, including KDE 4.11, Linux kernel 3.11.2 and Firefox 24; introduces support for MATE and Cinnamon desktops; replaces RawTherapee raw image editor with darktable...." Here is the brief release announcement with screenshots.
Korora 19.1 - the MATE desktop
(full image size: 2,484kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
SparkyLinux 3.1 "E17", "MATE", "Razor-qt"
Paweł Pijanowski has announced the release of SparkyLinux 3.1 "E17", "MATE" and "Razor-qt" editions, a set of Debian-based distributions and live CDs featuring three popular lightweight desktop user interfaces: "SparkyLinux 3.1 'Annagerman' E17, MATE and Razor-qt editions are out. The new ISO images of SparkyLinux provide a few changes and system improvements, similar to last week's release of SparkyLinux 3.1 LXDE, Ultra and CLI: Linux kernel 3.10.11; all packages have been updated from Debian's testing repositories as of 2013-10-05; Sparky Backup System - one more bug fixed, updated up to 0.1.5; Enlightenment 17 desktop is available as a separated ISO image now and it has been updated to version 0.17.3 from Debian's unstable repository; added Teamviewer client, Sparky APTus, Minitube, Gnote, Osmo, Radiotray and Xfburn. New forum for English speakers is also available." Here is the brief release announcement.
ZevenOS 3.3 "Neptune"
Leszek Lesner has announced the release of ZevenOS 3.3 "Neptune" edition, an updated release of the project's Debian-based distribution featuring the KDE 4.11.2 desktop and many popular applications in their latest versions: "The Neptune team is proud to announce the release of Neptune 3.3. This release features Linux kernel 3.10.12 and is exclusively meant to run on 64-bit CPUs. The KDE Plasma Desktop ships with version 4.11.2. Chromium was updated to version 29, VLC to 2.1 and LibreOffice to version 4.1.2. We ship with the latest and greatest multimedia codecs pre-installed, as well as the Flash player. For wireless diagnosis we ship Wireshark, Aircrack-ng and kismon. We made a lot effort in cleaning up the system and removed Eclipse as well as the Muon software center and qapt-deb-installer. We removed pavucontrol which is no longer used as we don't ship PulseAudio. Linux kernel 3.10.12 comes with patched zram to prevent freezes. We also added a renewed quick installation manual." See the release announcement for a list of new features and other details.
wattOS R7.5
Ron Ropp has announced the release of wattOS R7.5, a set of minimalist Ubuntu-based distributions with a choice of LXDE, MATE or pekwm desktop user interfaces: "I am pleased to announce the immediate release wattOS Release 7.5. wattOS R7.5 is a remastered build of Ubuntu 13.04 and is fully compatible with Ubuntu repositories. There are several new exciting things with release 7.5 as there are now three core flavors for you to try: 32-bit and 64-bit LXDE desktop editions; 32-bit Microwatt - lightweight and running customized pekwm; 32-bit and 64-bit MATE-desktop edition. The philosophy is to be minimal but functional and to let you choose what you want to install but to give you a good basic OS with a foundation to customize how you like. Things like printing, user management, multi-monitor support, power management and software management is all installed and ready to be used." Read the rest of the release announcement for more details.
wattOS R7.5 - the "Microwatt" edition featuring the pekwm window manager
(full image size: 1,541kB, screen resolution 1280x1024 pixels)
PCLinuxOS 2013.10
Bill Reynolds has announced the release of PCLinuxOS 2013.10, the latest round of maintenance updates for the project's "KDE", "MiniMe" and "LXDE" editions: "PCLinuxOS KDE 2013.10 (32/64-bit) is now available for download. With respect to the previous KDE editions these ISO images have the following changes/additions: Linux kernel 3.4.64. KDE 2013.10 has all the additions from MiniME and was built to provide a general-purpose KDE desktop computing environment. The DVD includes popular tools for office, audio, video, graphics, and Internet applications (LibreOffice 4.1.2, GIMP, Skype, Dropbox, VirtualBox, etc.) as well as additional drivers and tools to set up your hardware (graphic card, network, printer, scanner, etc.)." Read the release announcement (the "LXDE" edition was announced in a separate post) for more information and screenshots.
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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 (by Ladislav Bodnar) |
September 2013 DistroWatch.com donation: Tiny Tiny RSS
We are happy to announce that the recipient of the September 2013 DistroWatch.com donation is the Tiny Tiny RSS project, an open source, web-based news feed (RSS/Atom) reader and aggregator. It receives €250.00 in cash.
 Ever since the untimely death of Google Reader, many users of the popular online feed aggregator have been searching for an alternative. Although there has been an explosion of Reader replacements in recent months, the old adage of "once burnt, twice shy" might have prompted many to consider one of the open-source self-hosting RSS readers that would shield us from the whims of commercial companies or third-party services. Enter Tiny Tiny RSS. As its name suggests, it's a rather small program which you install either on a remote server or a home computer and which works in the background, fetching items of subscribed feeds at pre-determined intervals. It's an excellent piece of software is easy to set up and which offers a simple and intuitive user interface. Developed by Andrew Dolgov, Tiny Tiny RSS is a "a server-side AJAX-powered application licensed under GNU GPLv3. It is self-hosted - control your own data and protect your privacy instead of depending on a cloud service which may be discontinued at any moment." Please visit the project's Wiki pages for a full list of features, setup instructions and download links.
Launched in 2004, this monthly donations programme is a DistroWatch initiative to support free and open-source software projects and operating systems with cash contributions. Readers are welcome to nominate their favourite project for future donations. Those readers who wish to contribute towards these donations, please use our advertising page to make a payment (PayPal, credit cards and Bitcoins are accepted). Here is the list of the projects that have received a DistroWatch donation since the launch of the programme (figures in US dollars):
- 2004: GnuCash ($250), Quanta Plus ($200), PCLinuxOS ($300), The GIMP ($300), Vidalinux ($200), Fluxbox ($200), K3b ($350), Arch Linux ($300), Kile KDE LaTeX Editor ($100) and UNICEF - Tsunami Relief Operation ($340)
- 2005: Vim ($250), AbiWord ($220), BitTorrent ($300), NDISwrapper ($250), Audacity ($250), Debian GNU/Linux ($420), GNOME ($425), Enlightenment ($250), MPlayer ($400), Amarok ($300), KANOTIX ($250) and Cacti ($375)
- 2006: Gambas ($250), Krusader ($250), FreeBSD Foundation ($450), GParted ($360), Doxygen ($260), LilyPond ($250), Lua ($250), Gentoo Linux ($500), Blender ($500), Puppy Linux ($350), Inkscape ($350), Cape Linux Users Group ($130), Mandriva Linux ($405, a Powerpack competition), Digikam ($408) and Sabayon Linux ($450)
- 2007: GQview ($250), Kaffeine ($250), sidux ($350), CentOS ($400), LyX ($350), VectorLinux ($350), KTorrent ($400), FreeNAS ($350), lighttpd ($400), Damn Small Linux ($350), NimbleX ($450), MEPIS Linux ($300), Zenwalk Linux ($300)
- 2008: VLC ($350), Frugalware Linux ($340), cURL ($300), GSPCA ($400), FileZilla ($400), MythDora ($500), Linux Mint ($400), Parsix GNU/Linux ($300), Miro ($300), GoblinX ($250), Dillo ($150), LXDE ($250)
- 2009: Openbox ($250), Wolvix GNU/Linux ($200), smxi ($200), Python ($300), SliTaz GNU/Linux ($200), LiVES ($300), Osmo ($300), LMMS ($250), KompoZer ($360), OpenSSH ($350), Parted Magic ($350) and Krita ($285)
- 2010: Qimo 4 Kids ($250), Squid ($250), Libre Graphics Meeting ($300), Bacula ($250), FileZilla ($300), GCompris ($352), Xiph.org ($250), Clonezilla ($250), Debian Multimedia ($280), Geany ($300), Mageia ($470), gtkpod ($300)
- 2011: CGSecurity ($300), OpenShot ($300), Imagination ($250), Calibre ($300), RIPLinuX ($300), Midori ($310), vsftpd ($300), OpenShot ($350), Trinity Desktop Environment ($300), LibreCAD ($300), LiVES ($300), Transmission ($250)
- 2012: GnuPG ($350), ImageMagick ($350), GNU ddrescue ($350), Slackware Linux ($500), MATE ($250), LibreCAD ($250), BleachBit ($350), cherrytree ($260), Zim ($335), nginx ($250), LFTP ($250), Remastersys ($300)
- 2013: MariaDB ($300), Linux From Scratch ($350), GhostBSD ($340), DHCP ($300), DOSBox ($250), awesome ($300), DVDStyler ($280), Tor ($350), Tiny Tiny RSS ($350)
Since the launch of the Donations Program in March 2004, DistroWatch has donated a total of US$36,805 to various open-source software projects.
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New distributions added to waiting list
- GdNewHat GNU/Linux-libre. GdNewHat GNU/Linux-libre is a "Fedora Remix" with an aim to be a fully free operating system without proprietary software and binary blobs.
- Javalix. Javalix is a Linux-based distribution with a focus on Java software development.
- Raspberry Picture Frame. Raspberry Picture Frame is an operating system for the Raspberry Pi computer which displays images in a slide show format using files stored on a thumb drive.
- SchalamzaarOS. SchalamzaarOS is an openSUSE-based operating system for the micronation of Schalamzaar.
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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, 21 October 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 |
| • Ussye 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
Peppermint OS
Peppermint OS is a Debian- and Devuan-based (previously a Lubuntu-based) Linux distribution that aims to be fast and easy on system resources. By employing its Site Specific Browser, Peppermint integrates seamlessly with cloud and web-based applications. The distribution's other features include straight forward updates and easy step-by-step installation using the Calamares installer. The distribution once employed a hybrid LXDE/Xfce desktop environment, mixing LXDE's lxsession with Xfce's panel and application menu. Starting in 2022, Peppermint OS shifted to using the Xfce desktop, dropping the LXDE components.
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!
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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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