 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 797, 14 January 2019 |
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Welcome to this year's 2nd issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Two hurdles Linux faces when trying to gain more mainstream appeal on desktop systems are support for more gaming titles and support from hardware retailers. This week we are happy to share good news on both of these fronts. In our News section we first look at the Debian team working on improving Secure Boot support on their distribution. Then we talk about Ubuntu and Ubuntu MATE being shipped on new all-in-one (AIO) devices and discuss increasing support for Linux in Valve's Steam store. In our Feature Story this week we take an early look at two projects on our waiting list Reborn OS and TinyPaw-Linux and share what makes these distributions interesting. Plus we offer tips on how to deal with an unresponsive desktop environment. In our Opinion Poll we ask what tools our readers use to keep their systems running smoothly when rogue processes try to gobble up more resources than they should. As usual, we share the distribution releases of the past week and provide a list of the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Reborn OS 2018.11.28
Reborn OS is a distribution from the Antergos and Arch Linux family of distributions. Like Antergos, Reborn uses the Cnchi system installer and provides a wide range of desktop environments and extra features we can enable at install time. Reborn's website mentions the project offers support for running Android applications through the Anbox compatibility software, works with Flatpaks, and can run the Mycroft personal desktop assistant.
I had previously tried Reborn OS back in October of 2018 and gave up trying to install the distribution because Cnchi kept running into problems downloading packages, telling me it had run into "error: 0". Since failure to download packages during the installation rendered it impossible to set up Reborn, I had to abandon the project.
Shortly after my truncated review appeared, one of the Reborn developers got in touch and reported that the problem with Cnchi had been fixed and invited me to try the distribution again. I gave the project a few months (and updated releases) to mature and then decided to give Reborn another test drive.
The Reborn ISO file is a 1.6GB download. Booting from the media brings up the Budgie desktop environment and shows us a welcome window. The welcome window appears to be borrowed from Antergos and displays buttons which will provide us with information. Some buttons link to the project's on-line source code repository, others offer to show us available software, another gives us a quick overview of the operating system.
Using the welcome window I ran into my first problem with Reborn. Clicking some of the buttons caused the operating system to lock up. For example, browsing the software list caused the system to freeze, necessitating a reboot. When I clicked on the source repository link, the Firefox browser opened, displayed the page and then the system locked up, again forcing a hard reset of the computer.
Reborn OS 2018.11.28 -- Reborn's welcome screen
(full image size:668kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
At this point I decided to stop exploring the live desktop and jumped into the Cnchi installer. The installer runs in a graphical window and feels similar in most respects to Ubuntu's Ubiquity installer or the Calamares installer. We are asked to select our preferred language from a list, select our country and select our time zone from a map. We are asked to confirm our keyboard's layout and then shown a list of available desktops. We can only choose one desktop to install, but the list of options is long and includes Budgie, Cinnamon, Enlightenment, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, MATE, Openbox, Pantheon and Xfce. There is also one called "Windows interface", but its description does not say what technology is used to present the Windows-like view.
The installer next asks which features we would like to enable. Options include accessibility packages, system maintenance, AUR support, Bluetooth, Chromium, Firefox, LibreOffice, Mycroft, printing support, WINE, VLC and Spotify. The list goes on. I kept my selection short, sticking to some common desktop applications like LibreOffice, a web browser and Mycroft. Cnchi then asks if we want to let it sort its list of package mirrors or manually select mirrors. I took the recommended automated sort.
Partitioning comes next with the option of using guided or manual partitioning. I went with the manual option, and then had to wait as the installer told me it needed to finish sorting its mirror list before I could partition the drive. Once the mirrors are sorted, partitioning is straight forward and pleasantly streamlined. Finally, we are asked to provide a username and password for an account and the installer goes to work downloading and installing packages, over 700 packages in my case.
After waiting for about half an hour, Cnchi finally reported "Can't install necessary packages" and displayed the infamous error 0. Unfortunately there is no way to recover. The installer closes without telling us which package caused the problem, or giving us a chance to proceed anyway, or giving us the option to try another mirror. The installer closes and we are left to try again from step one. The project's documentation says we can try to work around the issue by manually editing the package list to remove the offending package, but that is difficult given there were over 700 packages to go through and Cnchi does not give us a clue as to which one caused the problem.
I ended up trying Reborn OS in a VirtualBox machine and on my laptop. In both cases I quickly ran into a dead end with the distribution. This was frustrating as it means that, despite the assurances of the developers that the system should now be reliable, the installer issue has not been fixed. If anything, it seems new stability issues have crept in since the last time I used the distribution.
I have been told the Reborn team is working on their own installer to replace Cnchi. Hopefully the new installer (which has not appeared yet at the time of writing) will make setting up the operating system more straight forward.
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TinyPaw-Linux 1.3
Next on my list of projects to try was one I had not downloaded before: TinyPaw-Linux. The distribution's website describes the project as "an extremely lightweight and portable WiFi pen-testing distro. One that wasn't bloated with non-essential tools and features and that could actually boot, run and perform from CD or USB."
TinyPaw is based on Tiny Core Linux. While the project has a tiny parent and began as a relatively small distro, it has grown quickly in size. Version 1.0 was published in December 2017 and was 294MB in size. Version 1.3 was launched in October 2018 and was a 740MB download. I suspect the extra weight was introduced through new packages and WiFi testing tools.
The latest version appears to be based on Tiny Core Linux 9.0. Booting from the project's live media loads the distribution into RAM, making it highly responsive. At least it does if the distribution completes the boot process. I began by running TinyPaw on a laptop and, though the system started its boot sequence and was able to load modules into memory, it then locked up, unable to get to its graphical interface and unresponsive to keyboard input.
I switched to trying TinyPaw in a VirtualBox environment and had better luck. The distribution booted into a minimal graphical environment which carries a strong red on black theme. A panel at the bottom of the screen holds quick-launch buttons for various WiFi tools, network scanners, a settings panel and a lightweight web browser called Fifth. There are also launchers for a virtual terminal, a text editor and the PCManFM file manager.
TinyPaw-Linux 1.3 -- The Fifth web browser and TinyPaw's settings panel
(full image size: 155kB, resolution: 1024x768 pixels)
Right-clicking on the desktop brings up an application menu which helpfully organizes tools into categories. This makes it easier to quickly find networking tools as opposed to password crackers or scanners.
I played around with a handful of the included utilities and found most of them worked. This allowed me to scan the network, try to brute force passwords and collect network traffic. Some tools did not work though. One would open a blank window that closed after a few seconds, one of the password crackers reported it was missing dependencies and refused to run. For the most part, TinyPaw gave me functioning tools, but occasionally one would fail or simply not run.
A bigger issue I ran into is that TinyPaw includes no manual pages and no local documentation for the tools it features. This means if we don't know what an application does, or we know what it does but want to learn how to use a command line parameter, we need to go on-line and search for the answer. This introduced a series of speed bumps into my trial since anytime I wanted to use a new tool I had to open a web browser, search for the tool, go to its website, hope the utility had on-line documentation and read that. This is quite a bit slower than just opening a local manual page.
A positive side-effect of having such a trim distribution (one without documentation and a full featured desktop environment) is the whole distribution only requires about 300MB of RAM. And it appears as though the distribution runs entirely from within memory, making programs open very quickly.
I had mixed feelings using TinyPaw-Linux. On the one hand, it does ship with some useful penetration testing tools and the platform is small and fast. However, the lack of local documentation and my inability to get the distribution to boot on physical hardware made it impractical for most scenarios in which I would want to use such a tool.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Debian tests Secure Boot, Ubuntu shipping on Entroware AIO, most highly popular Steam games run on Linux
The Debian team is experimenting with booting their distribution on machines with Secure Boot enabled. Secure Boot strives to prevent the user from booting into compromised environments by checking for signed low-level components. This poses some challenges for Linux users who may have unsigned or custom kernels. People interested in helping Debian work out the bugs in their Secure Boot solution can follow the instructions in the project's wiki.
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Entroware is a computer manufacturer in the United Kingdom which sells personal computers and servers with Linux pre-installed. The company has unveiled a new all-in-one (AIO) system called Ares PC that ships with the customer's choice of Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE. Forbes comments: "The baseline Ares starts at £739 (about 824 Euros) and includes a 24-inch 1080p matte display with built-in speakers, Intel Core-i3 8100 at 3.6GHz, 8GB of RAM clocked at 2400MHz, a 120GB SSD loaded with your choice of Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE and a 3 year warranty. From there you can tinker with several upgrade options, stretching all the way to the fully-loaded £2689 Ares. Considering the size, it can pack a pretty considerable punch with a 6-core, 4.6GHz Intel Core-i7 8700, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB NVMe SSD plus an additional 4TB SSD drive. You can also bundle an additional monitor, but it doesn't look like Entroware offers a 4K display option." Further details can be found on the Entroware website.
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Linux gamers should be pleased to learn that more and more popular gaming titles are becoming available. The GamingOnLinux website took a look at the most popular titles on Steam and discovered over half of the top 250 offer support for Linux. "Overall, out of the 250 most highly rated titles on Steam as reviewed by users, 132 of them have official Linux support. Compared with Mac which has 156, we're not far off there at all. Let's just remember how small the Linux gaming platform is compared to Windows, over 50% there really is impressive."
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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) |
Dealing with an unresponsive desktop
Purging-pop-ups asks: Earlier this year I switched to using Linux, specifically Ubuntu for my computing needs. I am running a background job that requires a lot of CPU, like 100% all the time, and it is making my desktop virtually unusable. Input is slow and I keep seeing pop-ups telling me "This application is not responding - close or wait?" Why does having just one big background process bring Linux to its knees and what can I do to fix this?
DistroWatch answers: Welcome to the Linux community, I'm glad you could join us. There are a number of ideas and issues to explore in this situation so first let's take a look at the surface of the problem and then we will explore some possible underlying causes and solutions.
It sounds like what is happening is your one CPU-intensive process is using all the available resources and it is slowing down everything else, including the desktop environment. When the desktop is starved for resources, applications are not processing input quickly enough to appear "alive". When this happens, the system thinks the program might have crashed and offers to get rid of it. In this case, the applications are not actually crashing, they are just too resource hungry to respond.
Part of the issue here is that Linux tends to favour overall work performance over responsiveness. In other words, Linux will try to accomplish as many things as possible in a given amount of time, rather than making dealing with new input and generating a response its priority. This is ideal for servers and number crunching workstations, but not so great for people using the desktop under heavy load. There are ways to change the way Linux schedules tasks to try to get a more responsive user interface, but it is a technical path to walk and tends to involve re-compiling the kernel, and I think there are probably easier ways to address this situation.
Without the specifications of the computer and information on the processes (and constraints) the system is running under, the best course of action is hard to predict. However, I do have a handful of suggestions for situations like this that will hopefully help.
First, you mentioned the system is running Ubuntu, which suggests either the GNOME Shell or Unity desktop is being used. Both of these desktops use 3-D effects which require support from the video card to draw smoothly. Having a video driver that does not perform well puts more work on the CPU to make up the difference and can bring even modern machines to their knees. This typically happens if your machine is running an AMD or NVIDIA card. Almost all the reports I encounter from people saying Ubuntu runs too slowly or their desktop is not responsive can be traced back to a driver issue. Run the Software & Updates application and click on the Additional Drivers tab. This will show alternative drivers which may work better with your video card.
Second, it sounds like this background task is not being polite and gobbling up all the CPU resources it can find. This is going to slow down any system and is not ideal for a desktop machine. Ideally it would be nice to run such a heavy process on its own, dedicated machine, but if that is not possible, we can force the process to act in a more polite manner.
There are tools, called nice, renice and ionice, which will allow a program to run at full speed, but force it to stay out of the way when another program wants to work. This is done by lowering the heavy process's priority. When nothing else is happening on the system, the process can work as hard as it wants, but its reduced priority means other programs (like desktop applications) can interrupt its work.
We have talked about how to adjust the priority of programs previously in an earlier Tips and Tricks article.
A third possibility is the big background process is not only consuming a lot of CPU, it is also consuming memory. When too much memory is used up, the operating system dumps some memory out to swap space, which then needs to be read back when a program wants to use it. You can run the free command to check memory consumption.
If the computer's memory is full and it is starting to use swap space to make room for the heavy process, then there are only so many things you can do. You can run fewer applications and services, or add more RAM to the system.
Finally, so far as I know, there is no way to disable the pop-up which says a task has stopped responding. At least not without editing and re-compiling the window manager. However, you could try switching to a lighter desktop. Assuming you are running either Unity or GNOME on Ubuntu, these are relatively heavy desktops. Since you are running a CPU-heavy process, I think it makes sense to trim as much of the software as possible on this system. Installing a lighter desktop, such as Xfce or LXDE, will free up more CPU and memory for the heavier program.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Funtoo Linux 1.3
Daniel Robbins has announced the release of Funtoo Linux 1.3. Funtoo, a variant of Gentoo Linux, is an distribution that builds packages automatically from the source code. It was launched in 2009, shortly after Robbins left Gentoo Linux, a project he had founded in 2000. Version 1.3 brings a deprecation of "multilib" support, among other changes: "The ability for 64-bit versions of Funtoo Linux to run legacy 32-bit applications has been deprecated, so that Funtoo Linux for 64-bit CPUs is now 64-bit only, what we used to offer as a separate "pure64" build. This was done because 32-bit support was originally created as a stop-gap measure 15 years ago to allow for a seamless transition to 64-bit computing, and we believe the time has come to shed this ongoing maintenance burden and focus efforts that have historically been spent on 32-bit compatibility in other areas." Read the release announcement and release notes for more information. The Funtoo project does not provide bootable live or installation ISO images; users are instead directed towards the Gentoo-based SystemRescueCd to initiate any new installation. Optimised builds (or "stages") are available for various AMD and Intel processors, as well as the ARM and ARM64 architectures and Raspberry Pi and ODROID single-board computers - visit the project's "Subarches" page for a complete list.
Qubes OS 4.0.1
Marek Marczykowski-Górecki has announced the release of Qubes OS 4.0.1, an updated version of the project's security-focused Linux distribution which allows users to "compartmentalise" computing tasks into isolated compartments called qubes. This new release is mostly a bug-fix and security update and is recommended for all new Qubes installations: "We are pleased to announce the release of Qubes 4.0.1. This is the first stable point release of Qubes 4.0. It includes many updates over the initial 4.0 release, in particular: all 4.0 dom0 updates to date, including a lot of bug fixes and improvements for GUI tools; Fedora 29 TemplateVM; Debian 9 TemplateVM; Whonix 14 Gateway and Workstation TemplateVMs; Linux kernel 4.14. If you're currently using an up-to-date Qubes 4.0 installation (including updated Fedora 29, Debian 9, and Whonix 14 templates), then your system is already equivalent to a Qubes 4.0.1 installation. No action is needed. Similarly, if you're currently using a Qubes 4.0.1 release candidate and you've followed the standard procedure for keeping it up-to-date, then your system is equivalent to a 4.0.1 stable installation." Read the rest of the release announcement for additional information.
Clonezilla Live 2.6.0-37
Steven Shiau has announced the release of Clonezilla Live 2.6.0-37. Clonezilla Live provides tools for backing up, restoring and copying disk images and disk partitions either locally or across the network. The project's latest version includes several updates and fixes. "The underlying GNU/Linux operating system was upgraded. This release is based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2019-01-08). Linux kernel has been updated to 4.19.13; Partclone to 0.3.12; ldmtool and haveged packages have been added; cURL has been added; NetworkManager has been added so that users can use 'nmtui' to configure network if necessary, especially for WiFi; making unknown fs as 'dd' and the image name for partition like sda3.dd-img.aa is now legacy - it has been replaced by sda3.dd-ptcl-img.lzma.aa; rewrite the same mechanism in ocs-onthefly; in addition to massive-deployment mode, the interactive-client mode was added so that lite server can provide the ability to enter interactive mode of Clonezilla Live in client; let live-build 20180618 handle uEFI boot, so ocs-put-signed-grub2-efi-bldr and ocs-gen-grub2-efi-bldr are deprecated." Further details can be found in the release announcement.
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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: 1,197
- Total data uploaded: 23.3TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Tools to keep processes in line
Sometimes processes use more resources than they should, interferring with the smooth operation of the rest of the system. When this happens there are several tools a system administrator can use to prevent these runaway processes from having a negative impact. We would like to know which process taming tools our readers use.
You can see the results of our previous poll on running distributions for a long time in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Tools to keep processes in line
| cpulimit: | 29 (4%) |
| ionice: | 8 (1%) |
| nice/renice: | 110 (14%) |
| ulimit: | 9 (1%) |
| Virtual machine: | 62 (8%) |
| A combination of the above: | 121 (15%) |
| Other: | 53 (7%) |
| None of the above: | 410 (51%) |
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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 January 2019. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Issue 1117 (2025-04-14): Shebang 25.0, EndeavourOS 2025.03.19, running applications from other distros on the desktop, Debian gets APT upgrade, Mint introduces OEM options for LMDE, postmarketOS packages GNOME 48 and COSMIC, Redox testing USB support |
| • Issue 1116 (2025-04-07): The Sense HAT, Android and mobile operating systems, FreeBSD improves on laptops, openSUSE publishes many new updates, Fedora appoints new Project Leader, UBports testing VoLTE |
| • Issue 1115 (2025-03-31): GrapheneOS 2025, the rise of portable package formats, MidnightBSD and openSUSE experiment with new package management features, Plank dock reborn, key infrastructure projects lose funding, postmarketOS to focus on reliability |
| • Issue 1114 (2025-03-24): Bazzite 41, checking which processes are writing to disk, Rocky unveils new Hardened branch, GNOME 48 released, generating images for the Raspberry Pi |
| • Issue 1113 (2025-03-17): MocaccinoOS 1.8.1, how to contribute to open source, Murena extends on-line installer, Garuda tests COSMIC edition, Ubuntu to replace coreutils with Rust alternatives, Chimera Linux drops RISC-V builds |
| • Issue 1112 (2025-03-10): Solus 4.7, distros which work with Secure Boot, UBports publishes bug fix, postmarketOS considers a new name, Debian running on Android |
| • Issue 1111 (2025-03-03): Orbitiny 0.01, the effect of Ubuntu Core Desktop, Gentoo offers disk images, elementary OS invites feature ideas, FreeBSD starts PinePhone Pro port, Mint warns of upcoming Firefox issue |
| • Issue 1110 (2025-02-24): iodeOS 6.0, learning to program, Arch retiring old repositories, openSUSE makes progress on reproducible builds, Fedora is getting more serious about open hardware, Tails changes its install instructions to offer better privacy, Murena's de-Googled tablet goes on sale |
| • Issue 1109 (2025-02-17): Rhino Linux 2025.1, MX Linux 23.5 with Xfce 4.20, replacing X.Org tools with Wayland tools, GhostBSD moving its base to FreeBSD -RELEASE, Redox stabilizes its ABI, UBports testing 24.04, Asahi changing its leadership, OBS in dispute with Fedora |
| • Issue 1108 (2025-02-10): Serpent OS 0.24.6, Aurora, sharing swap between distros, Peppermint tries Void base, GTK removinglegacy technologies, Red Hat plans more AI tools for Fedora, TrueNAS merges its editions |
| • Issue 1107 (2025-02-03): siduction 2024.1.0, timing tasks, Lomiri ported to postmarketOS, Alpine joins Open Collective, a new desktop for Linux called Orbitiny |
| • Issue 1106 (2025-01-27): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta 6, Pop!_OS 24.04 Alpha 5, detecting whether a process is inside a virtual machine, drawing graphics to NetBSD terminal, Nix ported to FreeBSD, GhostBSD hosting desktop conference |
| • Issue 1105 (2025-01-20): CentOS 10 Stream, old Flatpak bundles in software centres, Haiku ports Iceweasel, Oracle shows off debugging tools, rsync vulnerability patched |
| • Issue 1104 (2025-01-13): DAT Linux 2.0, Silly things to do with a minimal computer, Budgie prepares Wayland only releases, SteamOS coming to third-party devices, Murena upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1103 (2025-01-06): elementary OS 8.0, filtering ads with Pi-hole, Debian testing its installer, Pop!_OS faces delays, Ubuntu Studio upgrades not working, Absolute discontinued |
| • Issue 1102 (2024-12-23): Best distros of 2024, changing a process name, Fedora to expand Btrfs support and releases Asahi Remix 41, openSUSE patches out security sandbox and donations from Bottles while ending support for Leap 15.5 |
| • Issue 1101 (2024-12-16): GhostBSD 24.10.1, sending attachments from the command line, openSUSE shows off GPU assignment tool, UBports publishes security update, Murena launches its first tablet, Xfce 4.20 released |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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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 | 
Voyager Live
Voyager Live is an Xubuntu-based distribution and live DVD showcasing the Xfce desktop environment. Its features include the Avant Window Navigator or AWN (a dock-like navigation bar), Conky (a program which displays useful information on the desktop), and over 300 photographs and animations that can be used as desktop backgrounds. The project also develops several other editions of Voyager Live - a "GE" edition with GNOME Shell, a "GS" variant for Gamers, and a separately-maintained flavour based on Debian's "stable" branch.
Status: Active
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| 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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