 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 572, 18 August 2014 |
Welcome to this year's 33rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly! Having a powerful tool, such as an advanced file system can be very appealing. However, having a powerful tool is only helpful if we have a way of understanding and making use of the tool. This is why it is important for operating systems to ship with documentation and comprehensive interfaces. This week we begin with a review of ZFSguru, a FreeBSD distribution which offers users an intuitive web-based interface for controling the operating system's advanced file system. In our News section we discuss changes coming to Fedora and some presentations shared at Flock, the Fedora contributor conference. We also cover Debian's progress with regards to supporting ARM64, the appointment of new members to the Gentoo Board of Trustees and share a tutorial on managing system processes, provided by openSUSE. Then we tackle the question of why many developers and users find rolling-release distributions so appealing. We wrap up this week by sharing news of recently released distributions and we look ahead to exciting new releases to come. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Exploring ZFSguru 10.1
 A project that was recently recommended to me is ZFSguru. What is ZFSguru? According to the project's website, "ZFSguru is a multifunctional server appliance with a strong emphasis on storage. ZFSguru began as simple web-interface front-end to ZFS, but has since grown into a FreeBSD derivative with its own infrastructure. The scope of the project has also grown with the inclusion of add-on packages that add functionality beyond the traditional NAS functionality found in similar product like FreeNAS and NAS4Free. ZFSguru aims to be a true multifunctional server appliance that is extremely easy to setup and can unite both novice and more experienced users in a single user interface."
Put another way, we might think of ZFSguru as distribution of FreeBSD with a user-friendly, web-based interface which makes system administration tasks easier. The latest edition of ZFSguru is available as a 64-bit x86 build and comes in two editions: Regular and GNOME. An older version of ZFSguru with 32-bit x86 support is available. In addition, it is possible to download the ZFSguru web interface only and install this front-end on an existing FreeBSD server or workstation. The download for the main edition of ZFSguru is 378MB in size and the GNOME edition is 676MB. I opted to download the former.
Booting from the ZFSguru media brings up a text-based menu where we are given a few options. We can exit the menu and access the live media's command line, we can attempt to detect our IP address or we can reset the configuration of the web interface. There are also options for shutting down or rebooting the computer. Near the top of the menu ZFSguru displays our current IP address. Copying this address into a web browser allows us to bring up the operating system's web interface. I found that, by default, ZFSguru presents us with a web interface over the HTTP protocol only, there is no secure HTTPS option.
ZFSguru 10.1 - overview of system status
(full image size: 135kB, screen resolution 1221x1000 pixels)
The first time we connect to the web interface we are presented with a few configuration screens. The first one contains security options and here we can set a password for the web interface. We can also tell ZFSguru to accept connections only from certain locations. For example, we can have ZFSguru restrict access to just computers on our local network or, alternatively, to one specific IP address. The second configuration screen shows us a list of disks connected to our server, confirming we have the correct number of storage devices. The third screen allows us to either import an existing ZFS storage pool or create a new pool using the attached storage devices. The forth and final screen asks if we would care to send feedback or hardware related information to the ZFSguru project to help the developers improve their software. Once the configuration steps have been completed we can decide whether we wish to continue running ZFSguru from the project's live media or we can install the operating system locally in our storage pool.
The ZFSguru installer runs in the project's web-based interface and consists of three screens. First we are asked which storage pool should host our local install of the operating system. Then we confirm which version of ZFSguru we want to install. Next, we can optionally tune the ZFS storage pool, adding file system compression, file redundancy and the amount of swap space to use. The installer then shows us detailed progress reports while it copies the required files and configures the new operating system. I found my installation went very quickly, requiring about three minutes. Once the system installer finished a prompt appeared asking me to reboot the computer. Booting the local copy of ZFSguru brings up the same text-based menu we saw in the live environment and the web interface is automatically enabled for us.
For my experiment with ZFSguru I ran the operating system in a VirtualBox virtual machine. FreeBSD-based projects tend to take longer to boot than Linux distributions (at least when run in VirtualBox), but ZFSguru booted fairly quickly, requiring less than a minute to come on-line. Once up and running, ZFSguru worked quickly and the web interface was highly responsive. The operating system does not require much memory either. My installation of ZFSguru used approximately 23MB of active memory and, in total, used less than 200MB. In the past I have heard people express concern that ZFS might require too much memory to be run on low-resource machines, but I found that even with file duplication, compression and its web interface enabled, ZFSguru required only a few hundred megabytes of memory to function.
The web interface presented by ZFSguru is clean and well organized. Along the top of the screen we find a series of tabs which represent broad categories of information or actions we can explore. These tabs (Status, Network, Disks, Pools, Files, Access, Services and System) each contain their own sub-categories of options and I found most functions quite easy to locate. What follows is a summary of what each category (and sub-category) has to offer the system administrator.
The Status tab shows us a general overview of the operating system. Its various sub-tabs allow us to monitor specific aspects of the operating system. There are sub-tabs for monitoring system logs, watching processor usage and checking memory consumption. Under the Network tab we can find a list of our computer's network interfaces, the IP addresses in use and other details on the network configuration. It appears as though we cannot alter the network configuration from this tab, though we can access the operating system's command line to adjust network settings.
The Disks tab shows us the status of all connected storage devices. It also allows us to format our storage devices and monitor the health of our disks using SMART. There are utilities under the Disks tab for monitoring storage input/output and running read/write benchmarks. I ran a benchmark and was shown a graph with the results. However, the two axis of the graph were not labelled, so I was not sure what to make of the results.
In the Pools tab we can view a list of ZFS storage pools and examine feature flags enabled on the file system. Under this tab we can enable ZFS scrubs and upgrade our pool's file system. We can also delete existing storage pools, export pools, rename a pool or search for pools we may wish to import. We can further create a new storage pool, expand an existing pool to include new devices and add a "hot spare" disk. A hot spare is a disk which is not currently in use, but can be activated in the case one of our active storage devices fails.
The Files tab allows us to create new file systems within an existing storage pool. Using the Files tab we can create file system snapshots, clone a snapshot or rollback the file system to an older snapshot. The Files tab contains a file browser and offers us point-n-click ways to share our file systems using either Samba or NFS. In addition we can change the permissions and ownership of files using the Files tab.
ZFSguru 10.1 - working with file system snapshots
(full image size: 86kB, screen resolution 1221x1000 pixels)
Exploring the Access tab we find the ability to create Samba network shares and user accounts. We can also create NFS shares and set a password for the operating system's secure shell account. The user account set up for secure shell access does not have special (administrative) permissions by default, but the account can be used to access the root account without a password.
The Services tab provides us with the ability to enable/disable system services. Some available services in the default installation include a secure shell, a name server, the Cron daemon, Samba, NFS, a network time synchronization daemon and a packet filter. There are additional services we can install through the web interface, about 90 in total. These services include web browsers, more network services, bittorrent clients and anti-virus software.
ZFSguru 10.1 - managing system services
(full image size: 152kB, screen resolution 1221x1000 pixels)
Finally, the System tab allows us to check for software updates, perform new installations and shutdown or reboot the computer. I found the installation function worked well and, during my trial, there were no new versions of ZFSguru available. The update feature appears to check only for updates to the web interface, not the underlying FreeBSD operating system. I tried to check for updates to the core operating system from the command line, but found ZFSguru would not successfully connect to any FreeBSD mirrors to fetch updates.
Conclusions
When I went into this review I did so with the impression ZFSguru was mostly about storage and designed to deal with NAS devices. For the most part this seems to be true. ZFSguru does feature a number of functions which make it suitable for a more general purpose operating system, but the bulk of the functionality deals with disks, RAID configurations, network sharing, ZFS tweaking, snapshots and file systems. As ZFSguru is a storage-focused operating system based on FreeBSD with a web interface, I found myself constantly comparing my experience with ZFSguru to my experiences with FreeNAS. Both projects make working with ZFS easy, both automate the initial installation and configuration of the operating system, both have polished web interfaces and both projects allow the user to install additional services to extend functionality. The two projects appear to diverge in two ways. First, FreeNAS has a lot of features, many of them probably only useful in business environments. ZFSguru, on the other hand, feels more streamlined, more geared toward home and small office installations. FreeNAS has a nice, but busy interface with a large tree of option screens. The ZFSguru interface feels cleaner to me, perhaps easier to navigate because of its fewer options.
ZFSguru 10.1 - checking the status of storage pools
(full image size: 135kB, screen resolution 1221x1000 pixels)
Taken on its own, ZFSguru struck me as being a very easy to use operating system. The scope of the project may be relatively narrow when compared against a general purpose operating system such as Debian or FreeBSD, but there is a great deal of storage- and services-oriented functionality presented in the web interface. The operating system is wonderfully easy to set up, makes managing disks, pools and snapshots remarkably easy and uses very few resources. The FreeBSD base is stable and the underlying ZFS technology is very powerful and flexible. ZFSguru does a great job of presenting the powerful aspects of ZFS while being simple to use. It only took me seconds to find features I wanted, there was no extra clutter and the web interface is quite snappy.
If pressed to criticize something I would say the one issue I ran into was with regards to security. ZFSguru was unable to download security updates for the underlying FreeBSD base, HTTPS was not enabled when the operating system was installed and, by default, there is no password on the administrator account. Granted, we can create a password for the root account and manually enable HTTPS, but I felt these could have been part of the installation process. These aspects of ZFSguru bring me back to the idea that the project seems best suited to home and small office environments while projects such as FreeNAS are more geared toward bigger organizations.
All in all, I really liked ZFSguru. It takes complex pieces of technology (FreeBSD and ZFS) and makes them surprisingly straight forward to install, configure and use. With the streamlined interface, the ZFSguru project makes a lot of tasks surprisingly easy and I think this project will appeal to people who want to set up a backup solution at home with a minimum amount of fuss.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith and Ladislav Bodnar) |
Fedora contributors share ideas at Flock, Debian releases first beta installer for "Jessie", Gentoo appoints new board members, openSUSE provides tutorials on system processes, Ubuntu Core update
 Flock is a conference for Fedora contributors where people can come together to share ideas and present new concepts. Fedora Magazine covers many of the highlights from this year's conference. Two key points are likely to be of use to system administrators and end users. One is a smaller Linux kernel along with support for the 64-bit ARM architecture. "During the Fedora.next process, the Fedora Cloud Working Group made requests of the kernel team to shrink down its size. There are a lot of optional components built into the kernel and many of these weren't actually needed in a cloud environment. So the kernel team went and broke out the available modules into a core set and a common set above that. This made the minimal installation set much smaller and reduced the space on the cloud images substantially."
Another talk concerned package and application management on Fedora. As Fedora Magazine reports: "PackageKit just isn't a real solution. A software installer that actually deals with users' needs is called for. This is a paraphrase of Richard Hughes first statement at his presentation on the GNOME Software and how to connect users to the applications they want." The post goes on to describe some changes coming to Fedora that will make managing packages and getting information on available applications easier for users of the popular distribution.
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 Fedora is not the only distribution working on an ARM 64-bit build. This post to the Debian ARM mailing list shows building packages for the 64-bit ARM architecture is underway in the Debian community. Not all packages in the Debian repository currently build on ARM64, but progress is being made and there is hope ARM64 will be an officially supported architecture in time for Debian's next release, code name "Jessie". "The ARM64 port is now open in the main archive and the initial (build-essential) bootstrap set of packages was uploaded on Friday. We expect official builds to come on-line this week and start churning through the rebuild of everything. Meanwhile the debian-ports archive is at 84.5% built, having been hovering tantalizingly close to the official qualification percentage of 85% for the last couple of weeks."
Speaking about "Jessie", the Debian developers are clearly entering the final stages of its development. Last week, Cyril Brulebois announced the availability of the first beta build of the Debian installer for the distribution's upcoming new release: "The Debian Installer team is pleased to announce the first beta release of the installer for Debian 8 'Jessie'. Important changes in this release of the installer: GNOME installation images have been fixed - they will now really install GNOME (instead of Xfce); a major parted release was merged lately, and many related components needed an update accordingly; a major release of syslinux also appeared, with incompatible changes; the default init system on Linux is now systemd." Those who would like to test the new installer and check out the current state of "Jessie" can get the "netinst" images from the Debian Installer page.
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 The Gentoo distribution holds regular elections for seats on their Board of Trustees. There were two open seats on the board for the 2014-2016 term and these seats have been filled without need for a vote. The Gentoo Monthly Newsletter explains, "The two open seats for the Gentoo Trustees for the 2014-2016 term will be: Alec Warner (antarus) [and] Roy Bamford (neddyseagoon). Since there were only two nominees for the two seats up for election, there was no official election. They were appointed uncontested." Congratulations to the two nominees and good luck!
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 Being able to control the programs which are running on our computers is a very important aspect of maintaining any operating system. Often times a program will misbehave or refuse to close or take up too many resources. When this happens it is good to know how to locate and handle the offending program. The openSUSE blog continues their tutorial series, this week talking about process management. The tutorial covers running programs, directing tasks to run in the background, finding misbehaving programs and terminating them.
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 Finally, some useful information for those readers who enjoy the Ubuntu distribution, but would prefer a variant that would allow more fine-grained customisation options. As this blog post by Dustin Kirkland reminds us, the popular distribution project does indeed produce a highly minimalist Ubuntu in just 63 MB when compressed. Formerly called JeOS (Just enough OS), it is now known under the name of Ubuntu Core: "JeOS has been here all along, in fact. You've been able to deploy a daily, minimal Ubuntu image, all day, every single day for most of the the last decade. Sure, it changed names to Ubuntu Core along the way, but it's still the same sleek little beloved ubuntu-minimal distribution. 'How minimal?, you ask. 63 MB compressed, to be precise. Did you get that? That's 63 MB, including a package management system, with one-line, apt-get access to over 30,000 freely available packages across the Ubuntu universe."
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
The appeal of rolling-releases
Curious-about-rolling-releases asks: Why is there such an interest in rolling-release distributions? Variants of Arch Linux and Debian "Testing" are cropping up everywhere and now openSUSE too. What do rolling-release distributions have to recommend them?
DistroWatch answers: With a traditional, fixed-release operating system the idea is that we install one release and the software which is included in our operating system stays pretty much the same for the duration of the product's life cycle. When a new version of a fixed-release operating system becomes available (six months or a year or a few years later) it is typically recommended that we wipe out the old version of the operating system and replace it with a fresh copy. This means there is some additional work involved in re-installing applications, restoring settings from our original install and so forth.
The fixed-release model has some nice features to recommend it. Our software should continue to work without any surprises or broken dependencies for the duration of the operating system's life. Typically, distributions providing fixed releases only provide security updates and minor fixes to released products and this usually makes for a stable operating system. People who run servers or people who are not familiar with Linux tend to like fixed-release operating systems as there is very little maintenance involved and rarely any unpleasant surprises. Plus, fixed-release systems are typically supported for three to ten years in the Linux community, depending on which distribution we are using. This means upgrades need happen only rarely.
A rolling-release model is quite different. The repositories of a rolling-release distribution are typically not frozen at a fixed point in time. Packages in a rolling-release distribution are regularly updated with new features as well as security fixes. This means we regularly have access to new versions of applications very shortly after they are created. People who like to try out the latest features and software changes tend to like rolling-release distributions as there is always something new in the software repositories. In theory rolling-releases have another advantage: a rolling-release distribution does not have an end-of-life, a point where they are no longer supported. With a rolling-release the distribution is constantly being updated so the software never goes out of date, never reaches a point in time where it is no longer being supported. The idea is we can install a rolling-release distribution once and continue to use it for the full life time of our computer's hardware, all the while benefiting from the latest versions of open source software.
Rolling-release distributions are appealing to a few groups of people. Distribution developers often like them because it means less work. The developers are not forced to juggle maintenance for older packages, plus security patches, plus new releases coming in for testing. The distribution developers can focus on one branch of their operating system and keep it up to date. With a rolling-release distribution there is no backporting bug fixes or features because the project's users are always running the latest software version.
People using a rolling-release distribution may appreciate it for a few reasons. Perhaps they are a developer who wants to use the latest technologies in their own software project. Others simply like to try out and test new technologies and a rolling-release distribution provides an endless supply of new software. Others like the idea of being able to install a distribution once without concerning themselves with fresh installations in the future.
Rolling releases do tend to have their downsides though. For instance, it is difficult for third-party developers to create software for rolling-releases as a rolling-release distribution is a moving target. It is difficult to target and support an operating system which is changing on a regular basis. This is, in part, why we see companies like Oracle, Valve and GOG support long term support releases and not rolling-release distributions. Users of rolling-release distributions also tend to face issues arising from broken software or dependency problems. A modern operating system contains thousands of packages and, when many of them are constantly changing, this can make for a less stable environment.
Now, whenever we discuss rolling-release distributions on this site and their potential stability issues come up there are people who comment, pointing out their installation of Arch Linux or PCLinuxOS has been running smoothly for years. I don't doubt their sincerity. However, while some people may have had success maintaining long running rolling-release installations, I receive a regular stream of e-mails from people who are dealing with broken rolling-release systems (usually Arch-based) who are looking for help. I get enough of these e-mails describing broken dependencies that I created a form letter to assist with all the replies. What I take away from this is, with a handful of exceptions aside, rolling-releases are statistically less stable than fixed releases.
What it really comes down to is a rolling-release distribution typically appeals to people who want to be on the leading edge of software development. If you want to regularly see new features and get a peek at features most people will need to waits months to experience, then a rolling-release is appealing. On the other hand, a fixed release is geared toward people who want their computers to work the same way tomorrow as they did yesterday. People who rely on their desktops and servers working in a consistent manner probably will not find what they are looking for in a rolling-release distribution.
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| Released Last Week |
Univention Corporate Server 3.2-3
Nico Gulden has announced the release of an updated build of Univention Corporate Server 3.2, a Debian-based server distribution with a web-based server management system: "We are pleased to announce the availability of UCS 3.2-3, the third point release of Univention Corporate Server (UCS). It includes all errata updates issued for UCS 3.2-0 and comprises the following highlights: the new module Active Directory Connection merges the domain administrated by UCS and an existing Active Directory; the UCS setup wizard has been completely overhauled and now guides users particularly comfortably through the domain configuration of UCS and detects; PHP 5.4.4 has been back-ported to UCS 3.2; the OpenLDAP replication has been improved significantly by tracking changes in the directory service with unique IDs; Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.10.11...." Read the brief release announcement and check out the detailed release notes for more information.
Zorin OS 9 "Lite", "Educational Lite"
Artyom Zorin has announced the release of two new editions of the Ubuntu-based Zorin OS 9 distribution, the i386-only "Lite" and "Educational Lite" variants: "We are pleased to announce the release of Zorin OS 9 Lite and Educational Lite. These releases are the latest evolutions of the Zorin OS Lite series of operating systems, designed specifically for Linux newcomers using old or low-powered hardware. This release is based on Lubuntu 14.04 and uses the LXDE desktop environment to provide one of the fastest and most feature-packed interfaces for low-spec machines. This new release includes newly updated software as well as new software inclusions for the best lightweight desktop experience. The Educational Lite edition adds educational software to the desktop, making it the ideal choice for students, teachers and schools with low-powered hardware. All Zorin OS 9 editions are Long Term Support (LTS) releases." Here is the brief release announcement.
Robolinux 7.6.1 "Xfce"
John Martinson has announced the release of a new edition of Robolinux (a Debian-based distribution designed for newcomers to Linux) featuring the Xfce desktop: "Robolinux is pleased to announce a brand new Xfce edition based on Debian stable. A much more advanced operating system with far greater productvity, but incredibly easy to use for Linux beginners. Plus expert tech support is free. Robolinux Xfce 7.6.1 is extremely optimized, using only 140 MB of RAM in full composite video. It is very stable and has been fully tested for months. It doesn't require a video driver to be installed when running in full composite graphics mode (which is the default). If you are a Windows user this new streamlined Linux OS will blow your mind because it's so fast, super easy to use and highly reliable. Best of all it runs your favorite Windows apps natively with its built in Stealth VM software." Visit the project's SourceForge page to read the release announcement.
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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
- Debox GNU/Linux. Debox GNU/Linux is a Debian-based distribution featuring the Openbox window manager.
- livarp. livarp is a Debian-based distribution designed to run on low-resource computers.
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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, 25 August 2014. 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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