 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 725, 14 August 2017 |
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Welcome to this year's 33rd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
openSUSE is a distribution which tries to offer a little something to everyone. The project is available in two flavours, Leap and Tumbleweed, which provide stable and rolling releases, respectively. The openSUSE project supports many desktop environments, has a lot of system administration utilities, can access many community repositories and is one of the few Linux distributions actively offering advanced file system features though Btrfs. This week we begin with a review of openSUSE Leap 42.3 and explore the project's role as a desktop system. Debian is looking to improve security and provide better access to new versions of software and we talk about these changes in our News section. We also discuss changes coming to Ubuntu 17.10. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss gaming options on Linux. Using Linux as a gaming platform is also the topic of this week's Opinion Poll and we hope you will share some of your favourite Linux games in the comments section. We are pleased to cover last week's releases and provide a list of torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: openSUSE Leap 42.3
- News: Debian disables old TLS versions, using Flatpak to backport packages, changes planned for Ubuntu 17.10
- Questions and answers: Gaming on Linux
- Released last week: Tails 3.1, GParted 0.29.0-1, OSGeo-Live 11.0
- Torrent corner: GParted, IPFire, Karoshi, LuninuX, OSGeo-Live, Runtu, Tails
- Opinion poll: Gaming on Linux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (46MB) and MP3 (78MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
openSUSE Leap 42.3
openSUSE Leap is a conservative distribution that opts for stable packages over the latest and greatest. The latest release of Leap, version 42.3, ships with version 4.4 of the Linux kernel, but with many features backported from newer releases of the kernel. GNOME 3.20 and KDE Plasma 5.8 are the main desktops offered, but Xfce and LXDE can also be installed from the install media, with other options available post-install or via net-install. Firefox 52 ESR is the default browser in both GNOME and KDE and LibreOffice 5.3 serves as the default office suite.
As someone who appreciates a slower, more cautious update cadence, I was intrigued by openSUSE Leap 42.3's package selection. A slightly older desktop environment paired with an ESR Firefox and a recent release of LibreOffice is something I could find myself using as my main distribution, so I downloaded the 4.6GB ISO to give openSUSE Leap 42.3 a trail run. Below, I take a look at openSUSE's installation process, the KDE Plasma desktop, and more before sharing my final thoughts.
Installing openSUSE Leap 42.3
openSUSE's installation in handled by YaST. The basic experience should be familiar to anyone who has installed a Linux distribution before. While not identical to the installers used by other distributions, YaST handles the same steps and asks the user for the same information. Despite the similarities, there are some interesting differences. The most notable is the default partitioning scheme. By default, openSUSE Leap uses XFS for the home partition and Btrfs for almost everything else (the exceptions are the swap partition and the EFI partition), and openSUSE even pre-configures various directories as Btrfs sub-volumes. By extension, openSUSE is configured to take snapshots of the file system and, should something go wrong, it is possible to rollback the system to a working state. I did not get to test the snapshot feature in depth during the two weeks I spent with openSUSE Leap 42.3, but in my limited experience it works well and could be very, very handy.
openSUSE 42.3 -- Disk partitioning defaults
(full image size: 112kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Another thing that sets openSUSE Leap 42.3 apart from some other distributions is the fact that the installation media comes with both server and desktop installation options on the same image. Unlike Fedora and Ubuntu, only one download/installation image is needed to install to both server and desktop machines. Having a single flash drive with various installation options is something I find extremely handy. While I like the software selection in Fedora Workstation and Ubuntu's desktop version, the flexibility of openSUSE is a nice change. Being able to install a fully functional KDE or GNOME desktop, or some other custom option, including LXDE and XFCE, without having to download different install media or by installing packages post-install is nice. Yes, I still installed a few packages post-install, but far fewer than what I usually need to do with Fedora or Ubuntu. It should be noted that, much like the Red Hat family of distributions, openSUSE Leap and Tumbleweed (openSUSE's rolling release edition) lack the patent encumbered codecs needed to play some types of media files, so installing them post-install is a requirement if you want to watch and listen to certain types of media.
openSUSE 42.3 -- Selecting packages from the installer
(full image size: 98kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
openSUSE's KDE Plasma desktop
Being a GNOME user, I decided to try something different and give openSUSE's KDE Plasma desktop a try. Many of the under-the-hood features and setup tools are the same under all the desktops, so the openSUSE specific stuff is the same no matter what desktop I picked. Still, it was interesting to try out KDE. The Plasma 5.8 desktop is functional and familiar. With a taskbar at the bottom of the screen, the desktop should provide a familiar experience to anyone used to Microsoft Windows. The desktop environment is aesthetically pleasing, the only problem I had with the visuals was openSUSE Leap's default wallpaper. While this is very subjective, I do not like black wallpapers with minimal images. Though, to be fair, the default KDE wallpaper goes too far in the other direction. Personally, I very prefer the default wallpaper from openSUSE Tumbleweed.
openSUSE 42.3 -- The KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 138kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The KDE Plasma desktop can be customized extensively using the various options in System Settings, but I did not find much need to do so. The only things I really needed to change were setting up on-line accounts and adding a UTC clock to the clock in the taskbar. The default wallpaper, while not exactly my style, was something I could live with for the time I spent working on this review.
openSUSE 42.3 -- The KDE System Settings panel
(full image size: 113kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The default software selection is what one would expect from any modern distribution. Firefox 52 ESR, LibreOffice 5.3, and the typical KDE applications, like Akregator, Amarok and Dragon Player. KMail and more come pre-installed when selecting the KDE Plasma desktop option from the installer. A few other nice non-KDE applications, like GIMP, come pre-installed as well. More software can be installed graphically using YaST or the zypper package manager on the command line.
YaST and other openSUSE features
What really sets openSUSE apart from other distributions is YaST, openSUSE's vast array of advanced setup tools. Using the YaST Control Panel it is possible, for example, to password protect GRUB with just the click of a checkbox and the Okay button; YaST handles everything automatically. The things YaST can do are available on many other distributions, but YaST simplifies the process considerably.
openSUSE 42.3 -- The YaST control panel
(full image size: 152kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
openSUSE Leap 42.3 has a few other thing that are “different” to users coming from other distributions. It is one of the few distributions that I have seen that creates ~/bin and ~/public_html folders by default. Creating those folders, especially ~/bin, is a nice choice, though I am not sure how useful ~/public_html is nowadays. On the command line, command not found errors cause a prompt to appear telling the user to run cnf to find which package contains the missing executable. While this is a small thing, it is probably my favorite difference; I have spent a fair amount of time waiting for automatic command not found lookups to do their thing on various other distributions. Using zypper to install/remove packages took a little while to adjust to, but it works great. Searching for and installing packages was quick and easy. Overall, the openSUSE specific stuff is very nice and the non-openSUSE specific packages are put together into a nice, cohesive whole.
Final Thoughts
Coming from a Red Hat/Fedora background, the differences took a little while to get used to, but I honestly liked most of them. While I personally will not be switching to openSUSE Leap as my main distribution, I think I will be putting openSUSE Tumbleweed on at least one of my computers to see what interesting developments come from the SUSE family of distributions.
openSUSE Leap 42.3 is a great choice for users looking for a stable distribution with an enterprise level of conservatism when it comes to shipping tested packages instead of the newest versions of everything. Users who do want the newest packages can use openSUSE Tumbleweed instead. Either version of openSUSE, Leap or Tumbleweed, provides a nice experience. If you have hardware that works with Leap's version 4.4-with-backports kernel, it is an excellent choice for anyone looking for a stable system.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Ideapad 100-15IBD laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core i3-5020U CPU
- Storage: Seagate 500GB 5400 RPM hard drive
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Realtek RTL8723BE 802.11n Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel HD Graphics 5500
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Visitor supplied rating
openSUSE has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.8/10 from 269 review(s).
Have you used openSUSE? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian disables old TLS versions, using Flatpak to backport packages, changes planned for Ubuntu 17.10
The Debian distribution is experimenting with disabling older versions of Transport Layer Security (TLS) which are considered to be no longer secure. TLS allows networked applications to transmit information across the Internet securely and is an important technology for applications such as web browsers and e-mail clients. On Debian, TLS is implemented in the OpenSSL library and the latest version of OpenSSL in Debian's Unstable branch disables older, vulnerable versions of TLS while keeping more modern versions. There are some concerns that older or unmaintained applications may not work when older versions of TLS are disabled: "This will likely break certain things that for whatever reason still don't support TLS 1.2. I strongly suggest that if it's not supported that you add support for it, or get the other side to add support for it. OpenSSL made a release five years ago that supported TLS 1.2. The current support of the server side seems to be around 90%. I hope that by the time Buster releases the support for TLS 1.2 will be high enough that I don't need to enable them again." Information on this change can be found in a Debian mailing list post.
At the Debian conference (DebConf) this week in Montreal, Simon McVittie put forward the idea of using Flatpak portable packages more in Debian. Flatpak's bundling of dependencies is ideal of backporting packages (such as web browsers and games) which may need newer libraries that would otherwise conflict with Debian's conservative approach to packaging. "On Monday I gave a talk entitled 'A Debian maintainer's guide to Flatpak', aiming to introduce Debian developers to Flatpak, and show how Flatpak and Debian (and Debian derivatives like SteamOS) can help each other. It seems to have been quite well received, with people generally positive about the idea of using Flatpak to deliver backports and faster-moving leaf packages (games!) onto the stable base platform that Debian is so good at providing." McVittie has created a utility which can build Flatpak packages from Debian's native .deb archives to help demonstrate how Flatpak might be used on Debian. Additional information can be found in McVittie's blog post.
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The Ubuntu team is in the process of preparing for the release of Ubuntu 17.10, scheduled to be launched in October. One of the biggest changes planned for Ubuntu 17.10 is switching the default desktop environment from Unity to GNOME. Will Cooke has some updates on the transition and other changes coming to Ubuntu 17.10: "We're testing some patches to Chromium 60 in Artful to enable video acceleration and we're seeing roughly a 50% saving in CPU overhead when using VA API. In the screenshot above playing the video without acceleration is on the left and playing with acceleration is on the right. The CPU is Haswell. There are still more bugs to fix, but we're making progress. In Pulse Audio we've dropped some more patches for Android support (from Ubuntu Touch) bringing us more inline with upstream. This will make maintenance easier and should reduce the chance of bugs cropping up from our patches." Additional information and a screenshot of GNOME in action can be found in Cooke's post.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
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Gaming on Linux
Planning-to-play asks: Last time I checked out Linux there weren't many games. Has the situation improved at all, or should gamers dual-boot Windows?
DistroWatch answers: Desktop Linux users have a pretty wide range of games available to them these days, though whether you are satisfied with the selection may depend on what kind of games you are planning to play. Linux has always had a large collection of open source games, typically put together by small teams without budgets. These games, like "SuperTux", "SuperTuxKart" and "Battle for Wesnoth" are often labours of love. They may not have the high-end graphics of big budget games, but they are free, open source and often suitable for casual gamers.
In the past few years the market for indie games and small-to-medium sized studio games has really exploded on Steam. There are currently over 7,900 games for Linux available in the Steam market. These games range from smaller, indie projects like "Limbo", "Trine" and "Mark of the Ninja" through to better known titles such as "Portal 2", "Left 4 Dead 2", "Civilization VI" and "Total War: Warhammer". Linux releases of big titles sometimes lag a little behind their Windows counterparts, but medium and larger studios are increasingly supplying Linux ports of their games.
For people who want to avoid the digital rights management (DRM) associated with Steam games, the Humble Indie Bundle has a large catalogue of games, many of which run on Linux. At the moment there are around 1,800 titles available to Linux users on the Humble Bundle website, covering a wide range of genres and prices. Also for people who want better known titles without DRM, the GOG website currently features over 2,000 titles for Linux. Some of these GOG games are older classics such as "Baldur's Gate II" and "Star Wars: TIE Fighter Special Edition", but there are more modern games listed too like "FTL" and "Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings".
At this point I think it is fair to say Linux has a wide range of games across almost every genre, probably enough to keep most gamers busy for quite some time. Linux users do not have access to every triple-A title that comes out, but we do have access to a large selection.
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More answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
GParted Live 0.29.0-1
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 0.29.0-1, the latest upgrade to the popular live CD with a collection of specialist tools dedicated to managing disk partitions and rescuing files. This release includes the new GParted 0.29.0 software and fixes a couple of bugs: "The GParted team is pleased to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 0.29.0, patches for libparted for FAT file system operations, and other improvements. Items of note include: includes GParted 0.29.0 which adds the following enhancements since the last stable release - add support for UDF file system, fix segmentation fault on disk with corrupted FAT file system, fix snap-to-alignment of operations creating partitions; based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2017-08-08); Linux kernel updated to 4.11.11-1; package udftools added; includes patched version of libparted which fixes check FAT32 crashes an resized FAT32 not recognized by Windows." Here is the complete release announcement.
OSGeo-Live 11.0
OSGeo-Live is a live desktop distribution based on Lubuntu that allows the user to try a wide variety of open source geospatial software. The project's latest release, OSGeo-Live 11.0, introduces several changes and strips out a number of default applications: "This release has been a major reboot, with a refocus on leading applications and emphasis on quality over quantity. Less mature parts of the projects have been dropped with a targeted focus placed on upgrading and improving documentation. Dropped: Windows-only applications/installers; Overviews of OGC Standards; Some applications that did not meet our review criteria; We now only support a 64-bit distribution (32-bit is built but not officially supported). Added: Support for isohybrid ISO images with UEFI." Additional information on the changes and a list of features in OSGeo-Live 11.0 can be found in the project's release announcement. Known issues can be found in the project's errata.
Tails 3.1
The Amnesic Incognito Live System (Tails) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The Tails project has released a new version, Tails 3.1, which is based on Debian 9 "Stretch" and contains mostly minor changes and bug fixes. The release announcement states: "Upgrades and changes: Update Tor Browser to 7.0.4; Update Linux to 4.9.30-2+deb9u3. Fixed problems: Make sure that Thunderbird erases its temporary directory, containing for example attachments opened in the past. Fix translations of the time synchronization and "Tor is ready" notifications. For more details, read our changelog." A list of known issues is available. The release announcement mentions that while automatic upgrades from Tails 3.0 to 3.1 are enabled, upgrades from 3.0.1 to 3.1 are not. Though manual upgrades are possible.
Tails 3.1 -- Sharing files with OnionShare
(full image size: 55kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 528
- Total data uploaded: 15.0TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Gaming on Linux
In our Questions and Answers column this week we talked about the games available to Linux users. When it comes to playing games, do you find that Linux covers all of your needs? Or do you run other platforms to widen (or improve) your gaming experience?
If you are a Linux gamer, please share some of your favourite titles in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on the future of the Unity 7 desktop in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Gaming on Linux
| I game exclusively on Linux: | 320 (16%) |
| I use Linux and other platforms for gaming: | 435 (22%) |
| I use other platforms for gaming: | 325 (17%) |
| I am not a gamer: | 863 (44%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
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 August 2017. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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| Linux Foundation Training |
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| Archives |
| • Issue 793 (2018-12-10): openSUSE Tumbleweed, finding non-free packages, Debian migrates to usrmerge, Hyperbola gets FSF approval |
| • Issue 792 (2018-1203): GhostBSD 18.10, when to use swap space, DragonFly BSD's wireless support, Fedora planning to pause development schedule |
| • Issue 791 (2018-11-26): Haiku R1 Beta1, default passwords on live media, Slax and Kodachi update their media, dual booting DragonFly BSD on EFI |
| • Issue 790 (2018-11-19): NetBSD 8.0, Bash tips and short-cuts, Fedora's networking benchmarked with FreeBSD, Ubuntu 18.04 to get ten years of support |
| • Issue 789 (2018-11-12): Fedora 29 Workstation and Silverblue, Haiku recovering from server outage, Fedora turns 15, Debian publishes updated media |
| • Issue 788 (2018-11-05): Clu Linux Live 6.0, examining RAM consumpion, finding support for older CPUs, more Steam support for running Windows games on Linux, update from Solus team |
| • Issue 787 (2018-10-29): Lubuntu 18.10, limiting application access to specific users, Haiku hardware compatibility list, IBM purchasing Red Hat |
| • Issue 786 (2018-10-22): elementary OS 5.0, why init keeps running, DragonFly BSD enables virtual machine memory resizing, KDE neon plans to drop older base |
| • Issue 785 (2018-10-15): Reborn OS 2018.09, Nitrux 1.0.15, swapping hard drives between computers, feren OS tries KDE spin, power savings coming to Linux |
| • Issue 784 (2018-10-08): Hamara 2.1, improving manual pages, UBports gets VoIP app, Fedora testing power saving feature |
| • Issue 783 (2018-10-01): Quirky 8.6, setting up dual booting with Ubuntu and FreeBSD, Lubuntu switching to LXQt, Mint works on performance improvements |
| • Issue 782 (2018-09-24): Bodhi Linux 5.0.0, Elive 3.0.0, Solus publishes ISO refresh, UBports invites feedback, Linux Torvalds plans temporary vacation |
| • Issue 781 (2018-09-17): Linux Mint 3 "Debian Edition", file systems for SSDs, MX makes installing Flatpaks easier, Arch team answers questions, Mageia reaches EOL |
| • Issue 780 (2018-09-10): Netrunner 2018.08 Rolling, Fedora improves language support, how to customize Kali Linux, finding the right video drivers |
| • Issue 779 (2018-09-03): Redcore 1806, keeping ISO downloads safe from tampering, Lubuntu makes Calamares more flexible, Ubuntu improves GNOME performance |
| • Issue 778 (2018-08-27): GuixSD 0.15.0, ReactOS 0.4.9, Steam supports Windows games on Linux, Haiku plans for beta, merging disk partitions |
| • Issue 777 (2018-08-20): YunoHost 3.0.0.1, limiting process resource usage, converting file systems on Fedora, Debian turns 25, Lubuntu migrating to Wayland |
| • Issue 776 (2018-08-13): NomadBSD 1.1, Maximum storage limits on Linux, openSUSE extends life for 42.3, updates to the Librem 5 phone interface |
| • Issue 775 (2018-08-06): Secure-K OS 18.5, Linux is about choice, Korora tests community spin, elementary OS hires developer, ReactOS boots on Btrfs |
| • Issue 774 (2018-07-30): Ubuntu MATE & Ubuntu Budgie 18.04, upgrading software from source, Lubuntu shifts focus, NetBSD changes support policy |
| • Issue 773 (2018-07-23): Peppermint OS 9, types of security used by different projects, Mint reacts to bugs in core packages, Slackware turns 25 |
| • Issue 772 (2018-07-16): Hyperbola GNU/Linux-libre 0.2.4, UBports running desktop applications, OpenBSD auto-joins wi-fi networks, boot environments and zedenv |
| • Issue 771 (2018-07-09): Linux Lite 4.0, checking CPUs for bugs, configuring GRUB, Mint upgrade instructions, SUSE acquired by EQT |
| • Issue 770 (2018-07-02): Linux Mint 19, Solus polishes desktop experience, MintBox Mini 2, changes to Fedora's installer |
| • Issue 769 (2018-06-25): BunsenLabs Helium, counting Ubuntu users, UBports upgrading to 16.04, Fedora CoreOS, FreeBSD turns 25 |
| • Issue 768 (2018-06-18): Devuan 2.0.0, using pkgsrc to manage software, the NOVA filesystem, OpenBSD handles successful cron output |
| • Issue 767 (2018-06-11): Android-x86 7.1-r1, transferring files over OpenSSH with pipes, LFS with Debian package management, Haiku ports LibreOffice |
| • Issue 766 (2018-06-04): openSUSE 15, overview of file system links, Manjaro updates Pamac, ReactOS builds itself, Bodhi closes forums |
| • Issue 765 (2018-05-28): Pop!_OS 18.04, gathering system information, Haiku unifying ARM builds, Solus resumes control of Budgie |
| • Issue 764 (2018-05-21): DragonFly BSD 5.2.0, Tails works on persistent packages, Ubuntu plans new features, finding services affected by an update |
| • Issue 763 (2018-05-14): Fedora 28, Debian compatibility coming to Chrome OS, malware found in some Snaps, Debian's many flavours |
| • Issue 762 (2018-05-07): TrueOS 18.03, live upgrading Raspbian, Mint plans future releases, HardenedBSD to switch back to OpenSSL |
| • Issue 761 (2018-04-30): Ubuntu 18.04, accessing ZFS snapshots, UBports to run on Librem 5 phones, Slackware makes PulseAudio optional |
| • Issue 760 (2018-04-23): Chakra 2017.10, using systemd to hide files, Netrunner's ARM edition, Debian 10 roadmap, Microsoft develops Linux-based OS |
| • Issue 759 (2018-04-16): Neptune 5.0, building containers with Red Hat, antiX introduces Sid edition, fixing filenames on the command line |
| • Issue 758 (2018-04-09): Sortix 1.0, openSUSE's Transactional Updates, Fedora phasing out Python 2, locating portable packages |
| • Issue 757 (2018-04-02): Gatter Linux 0.8, the UNIX and Linux System Administration Handbook, Red Hat turns 25, super long term support kernels |
| • Issue 756 (2018-03-26): NuTyX 10.0, Neptune supplies Debian users with Plasma 5.12, SolydXK on a Raspberry Pi, SysV init development |
| • Issue 755 (2018-03-19): Learning with ArchMerge and Linux Academy, Librem 5 runs Plasma Mobile, Cinnamon gets performance boost |
| • Issue 754 (2018-03-12): Reviewing Sabayon and Antergos, the growing Linux kernel, BSDs getting CPU bug fixes, Manjaro builds for ARM devices |
| • Issue 753 (2018-03-05): Enso OS 0.2, KDE Plasma 5.12 features, MX Linux prepares new features, interview with MidnightBSD's founder |
| • Issue 752 (2018-02-26): OviOS 2.31, performing off-line upgrades, elementary OS's new installer, UBports gets test devices, Redcore team improves security |
| • Issue 751 (2018-02-19): DietPi 6.1, testing KDE's Plasma Mobile, Nitrux packages AppImage in default install, Solus experiments with Wayland |
| • Issue 750 (2018-02-12): Solus 3, getting Deb packages upstream to Debian, NetBSD security update, elementary OS explores AppCentre changes |
| • Issue 749 (2018-02-05): Freespire 3 and Linspire 7.0, misunderstandings about Wayland, Xorg and Mir, Korora slows release schedule, Red Hat purchases CoreOS |
| • Issue 748 (2018-01-29): siduction 2018.1.0, SolydXK 32-bit editions, building an Ubuntu robot, desktop-friendly Debian options |
| • Issue 747 (2018-01-22): Ubuntu MATE 17.10, recovering open files, creating a new distribution, KDE focusing on Wayland features |
| • Issue 746 (2018-01-15): deepin 15.5, openSUSE's YaST improvements, new Ubuntu 17.10 media, details on Spectre and Meltdown bugs |
| • Issue 745 (2018-01-08): GhostBSD 11.1, Linspire and Freespire return, wide-spread CPU bugs patched, adding AppImage launchers to the application menu |
| • Issue 744 (2018-01-01): MX Linux 17, Ubuntu pulls media over BIOS bug, PureOS gets endorsed by the FSF, openSUSE plays with kernel boot splash screens |
| • Issue 743 (2017-12-18): Daphile 17.09, tools for rescuing files, Fedora Modular Server delayed, Sparky adds ARM support, Slax to better support wireless networking |
| • Issue 742 (2017-12-11): heads 0.3.1, improvements coming to Tails, Void tutorials, Ubuntu phasing out Python 2, manipulating images from the command line |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Random Distribution | 
Pearl Linux OS
Pearl Linux OS is a distribution based on Ubuntu. Pearl uses components of the LXDE and Xfce desktop environments to create a desktop experience which looks similar to Apple's OS X desktop environment. The project calls this hybrid desktop PearlDE. Pearl Linux OS is available in several editions, including GNOME, MATE and PearlDE.
Status: Active
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