 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 725, 14 August 2017 |
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: 8.7/10 from 437 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) |
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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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
Pidora
Pidora was a Linux software distribution for the Raspberry Pi computer. It contains software packages from the Fedora project compiled for the ARMv6 architecture used on the Raspberry Pi, packages which have been specifically written for or modified for the Raspberry Pi, and software provided by the Raspberry Pi Foundation for device access.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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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