 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 814, 13 May 2019 |
Welcome to this year's 19th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Last week we saw the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0. Red Hat creates the world's most profitable Linux distribution which is often deployed by businesses due to its commercial support options and ten years of security updates. Before software lands in Red Hat Enterprise Linux though it first appears in Fedora and gets tested by Fedora's users and developers. This week we begin with a look at Fedora 30 as Joshua Allen Holm tries out both Fedora's Workstation and Silverblue editions. We also talk about Fedora launching an updated AskFedora platform in our News section, as well as talking about distributions publishing fixes for Firefox, and the Endless team creating educational games. We also link to information on the upcoming launch of CentOS 8.0 and plans to make GNOME on Wayland the default desktop session for Debian. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss why different distributions ship with different versions of the Linux kernel and our Opinion Poll this week asks which version of the kernel our readers are using. Plus we are pleased to report on the new releases of the past week and share the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Fedora 30 Workstation and Fedora 30 Silverblue
- News: Distributions publish fixes for Firefox, Fedora launches new community platform, CentOS team reveals roadmap to 8.0, Debian plans to use Wayland by default, Endless creates educational games
- Questions and answers: Why distributions ship with different kernel versions
- Released last week: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0, Project Trident 19.04, LibreELEC 9.0.2
- Torrent corner: Alpine, Archman, Condres, ExTiX, LibreELEC, Obarun, OpenIndiana, PCLinuxOS, RebeccaBlackOS, SmartOS, Tails, Trident
- Upcoming releases: Tails 3.14
- Opinion poll: Which kernel version are you running?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Fedora 30 Workstation and Fedora 30 Silverblue
Fedora 30 Workstation, Server, and various Fedora spins and labs were released on April 30. This release of Fedora comes with Linux 5.0, Bash 5.0, GNOME 3.32, and a whole host of other software updates. As is typical for a recent Fedora release, many of changes involve updating various development tools and programming languages to their latest versions, but Fedora 30 also added two new desktop environments to Fedora's list of supported desktops: Pantheon and Deepin. There are not spins for either of these desktops, but they can be installed using the appropriate "dnf group install" command.
While the possibility of reviewing one of the new-to-Fedora desktops is intriguing I decided to focus on the "default" Fedora release for desktops, which is the Workstation version. I also looked at Silverblue, a variation on Workstation that uses rpm-ostree to update the entire base operating system as a single unit instead of using the dnf package manager to update individual packages, to see if that variant is close to being a viable alternative to the standard Workstation release.
Installing Fedora Workstation
To begin installing Fedora I copied the 1.9GB Workstation ISO to a flash drive. I restarted my computer and booted from the flash drive. The live GNOME desktop environment started up, and I was given the option to Try or Install Fedora. I opted for Try, just so I could poke around the desktop to see if anything had changed. It turns out that something had; Fedora 30 does not come with Evolution as part of its package selection. In fact, it has no graphical e-mail application at all. In the age of webmail this is not too bad, but it does expose an odd bug where the default calendar application, and only available calendar option in the Default Applications Settings panel, is the Text Editor (gedit) application, not GNOME Calendar.
Fedora 30 -- The Anaconda installer
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Having explored enough to see what else might have changed, I started the Anaconda installer. Because Fedora Workstation uses a two-part install process, there was not much to do in the installer beyond selecting my language and keyboard layout, adjusting my timezone, and partitioning my hard drive. I selected the default partition options, but enabled encryption, so all I had to do was set an encryption password. Once Fedora was installed on my hard drive, I rebooted the computer to finish the installation process.
Fedora 30 -- Plymouth boot splash screen
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While Fedora was starting I got to see a very nice new boot splash that displays my computer manufacturer's logo, a spinner, and the Fedora logo. (When I booted from the flash drive to install Fedora, I got a boot splash with just three little boxes, which was either a fluke or a bug.) This new boot splash screen looks very nice, and it provides a prompt to unlock encrypted disks where the manufacturer's logo is displayed; once the password is entered the logo returns. When using Fedora 30 in a virtual machine in GNOME Boxes, the place where the manufacturer's logo goes is just blank.
Fedora 30 -- New user creation in GNOME
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After the system was fully started, GNOME Initial Setup handled the rest of the installation and created a new user. This new user has admin privileges and the root password is not set at any point during the installation process, leaving the root account locked. One nice new feature is that GNOME Initial Setup will create a custom image for a new user consisting of the user's initials and a colored background. The background color is not something the user can select; it seems to be generated by using the letters in a user's name. "Joshua Allen Holm" consistently gives me a brown background, but "Joshua Holm" gives me a purple background. However, there seems to be little way to access this feature after install. When I add a new user to my system, it does create initials on a colored background image for the new users, but for pre-existing users, the Users panel in GNOME Settings only presents the various default images as options, or lets the user take or select a picture. There seems to be no option to pick/make an initials/background color image. There is also no option to pick no image at all and go back to the default, generic user icon.
Fedora 30 Workstation's desktop and default applications
Fedora's desktop is a standard GNOME 3 desktop. The only extension Fedora Workstation uses by default is the one that displays the Fedora logo in the bottom right corner of the desktop. The software selection is also pretty standard: Firefox for web browsing, LibreOffice for editing documents, Rhythmbox for playing music, GNOME Photos and Image Viewer for viewing images. The rest of the software are standard GNOME applications and utilities. As noted above, there is no e-mail program provided by default, so the user will have to install something if they want an e-mail application.
Fedora 30 -- Workstation default software selection
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Fedora 30 Workstation's default selection of software is okay. Users who just want to write a paper, create a spreadsheet, browse the web, or check their web-based e-mail, should not need to add much to the system. Users who want to play videos that use patent-encumbered codecs will, of course, need to add RPM Fusion's repositories to their system, but that is to be expected on Fedora.
Overall, the upgrade to GNOME 3.32 brings some nice refinements, but nothing too major. It is mostly a matter of polish and minor improvements. However, one thing I noticed when looking around the new features in GNOME's Settings application was that the Privacy panel had options to disable the camera and microphone, but these options did not work. When I turned off the camera, Cheese, which is a webcam application installed through an RPM package, still accessed my camera just fine. When I tried Flatpak applications instead, they also could still access the camera and microphone.
Installing additional software
If the default packages are not enough for a user, there is plenty of software in Fedora's repositories. GNOME Software is the graphic option to install new packages, and in Fedora 30 it comes with a nice feature that integrates the same package from multiple sources into a single page, so Flatpak applications and applications from Fedora's repositories are no longer separate entries.
Fedora 30 -- GNOME Software with Source Selection menu
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Users who wish to install applications from the command line can use dnf to install software packaged as RPMs and the flatpak command to install Flatpaks. However, the popular Flathub repository is not enabled by default, so users will need to add it (or some other Flatpak repository) before being able to install much of anything using the flatpak command. There is a new Fedora Flatpak repository, but there is almost nothing in it, just a few games, some basic GNOME utilities, the Transmission bittorrent client, Firefox, and Thunderbird.
Fedora 30 -- Fedora Flatpak repository
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Various modules can be enabled and installed using dnf, so users can install various different versions of different programming languages, databases, and a small selection of other applications. For example, it is possible to install Node.js 8, 10, or 11 and PostgreSQL 9.6, 10, or 11. There are not as many version options for some modules, but there are usually a few options. Sometimes the different modules provide the choice between different implementations with the two Kubernetes modules providing a way to install standard Kubernetes 1.10 or OpenShift 3.10.
Fedora Silverblue and Toolbox
Fedora 30 Silverblue represents what may be a possible future for Workstation. It remains to be seen if Silverblue will be ever become the default version of Fedora for desktop users, but it is an interesting alternative. After trying out the standard Workstation version, I copied the 2.1GB Silverblue ISO to a flash drive and used that to install Fedora Silverblue. Because the process is so similar, I will not go into as many details, and I will mostly point out the difference from the standard Workstation experience.
Fedora 30 -- Silverblue pre-installed applications
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Unlike Workstation, there is no live desktop environment when booting the install media. Another difference is that Silverblue still uses Anaconda to create a new user and still lets the user set the root password. However, this means that the new user will not have the fancy new initials & colour background user image. After Silverblue is installed it comes with far less software. Firefox and a very, very limited selection of GNOME utilities are all the software that comes in the Silverblue base image. Just like Workstation, Silverblue does not enable Flathub by default, so the selection of Flatpak application is paltry, but GNOME Software does show RPM-based applications and can layer them on top of the base Silverblue image, but a restart is required to use any applications installed this way.
To use Silverblue as intended, I added the Flathub repository and added applications from there. Honestly, I was happy with how many of the applications I use were available from Flathub. The only things on my must have list that were not there were GNOME Latex (formerly known as Latexila) and RStudio. Granted, not every Flatpak application is as nice to use as the versions available as RPMs, but they worked well enough. To give some examples of Flatpaks that do not match up to their RPM counterparts, ScummVM is limited to having access to the Documents folder, so games need to be installed there for ScummVM to be able to find them (overriding this confinement setting is also an option); GNOME Clocks and Weather do not integrate with GNOME's notification/calendar panel; and for some reason various games do not close properly and instead their final screen remains stuck in front of an otherwise functional and active GNOME desktop. Every time I had a Flatpak game do this, I had to press the Super button my keyboard, blindly type "Log Out" and blindly select the Log Out button on the dialog box that I could not see. After I switched back to the traditional Workstation variant, I confirmed that the same behavior exists there, so it is not a Silverblue-specific bug.
One interesting new feature included in the default Silverblue package selection is Toolbox, which is a command-line utility to easily manage containers that can be used as developer workspace for installing development tools and libraries without having to deal with layering them on top of the Silverblue image. Using ‘toolbox create' creates a new container based on the Fedora 30 Container image, but various options can be used to create additional containers or containers based on other images. The ‘toolbox enter' command enters the toolbox, and users can install packages using dnf. When inside the container, it is still possible to access the files in a user's home directory, so it does not complicate the development process by walling off development files inside a specific container. One thing I noticed though is that the default image created still seems to have the updates-testing repositories enabled (as I write this it is more than a week after Fedora 30's release and it is still doing this when I create a new image), so to update the container, I had to run dnf with the --disablerepo=updates-testing option to get everything properly updated without installing testing packages. Toolbox does the same thing on Fedora Workstation, so the issue is with the Fedora Container image in the container repository, not with Silverblue.
Final thoughts
Fedora 30 continues the trend of each new Fedora release being a little better and more polished than the last. There are still a few rough edges (e.g., Toolbox creating an image that still has updates-testing enabled and certain Flatpak games not properly exiting), but those should be resolved soon enough. Fedora 30 Workstation is more than ready for anyone who likes being an early adopter, but more conservative upgraders should perhaps give it a few more weeks.
Fedora 30 Silverblue is almost ready for anyone interested in using Flatpaks for all of their apps and containers for development. Silverblue's GNOME desktop needs a few minor odds & ends fixed to bring into feature parity with Workstation, but most of the issues with Silverblue involve getting various Flatpak applications to communicate with each other and with the base system. So for some, Silverblue may be ready, it really depends on an individual's particular software needs, but for others it still needs work.
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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
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 289 review(s).
Have you used Fedora? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Distributions publish fixes for Firefox, Fedora launches new community platform, CentOS team reveals roadmap to 8.0, Debian plans to use Wayland by default, Endless creates educational games
Last weekend a lapsed security certificate caused the Firefox web browser, and some related browsers, to disable all installed add-ons. Mozilla quickly published a workaround and a new version of Firefox to provide a fix. Linux distributions also found themselves pushing out new package updates and, in some cases, new live media to address the situation. The Tails team published new media (Tails 3.13.2) to address the potential security issues along with instructions for re-enabling browser add-ons.
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Fedora Magazine has announced the availability of a new platform where Fedora users can swap tips, get help and discuss their distribution. "If you've been reading the Community blog, you'll already know: AskFedora has moved to Discourse. Read on for more information about this exciting platform. Discourse? Why Discourse? The new AskFedora is a Discourse instance hosted by Discourse, similar to discussion.fedoraproject.org. However, where discussion.fedoraproject.org is meant for development discussion within the community, AskFedora is meant for end-user troubleshooting. The Discourse platform focuses on conversations. Not only can you ask questions and receive answers, you can have complete dialogues with others."
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The CentOS distribution is built from the same source code as Red Hat Enterprise Linux, with different branding and some configuration changes. The CentOS team has published a blog post acknowledging the release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 8.0 and providing information on the steps CentOS must take to produce their no-cost clone. "As everybody is probably aware now, RHEL 8.0 was released earlier this week. Instead of publishing multiple blog posts here and then point to updated content, we decided this time to have a dedicated wiki page that can be used to track our current status." The wiki page outlines the necessary steps required to build CentOS 8.0 and will be updated as the team makes progress.
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The Debian news site has linked to a blog post by Jonathan Dowland in which he talks about Debian 10 "Buster" using GNOME running on Wayland as the default desktop environment. Dowland reports using and appreciating the GNOME and Wayland combination, but points out some troubling bugs and restrictions Wayland presents which suggest GNOME running on the older X.Org session would be a better fit for most users. For instance, Dowland points out it may not be possible to run Debian's Synaptic package manager on the Wayland session. "In a wider context than just the GNOME community, there are still problems to be worked out. This all came to my attention because for a while the popular Synaptic package manager was to be ejected from Debian for not working under Wayland. That bug has now been worked around to prevent removal (although it's still not functional in a Wayland environment). Tilda was also at risk of removal under the same rationale, and there may be more such packages that I am not aware of." A bug report discussing this issue has been filed in Debian's issue tracker.
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Endless, the group which created Endless OS, have started a new project: a series of games which run on Linux and help children learn how source code works. "With the launch of Endless Studios and The Third Terminal today, Endless launched its first group of games designed to harness gaming to bring kids into coding. Built atop the Unity game engine, its collection of games: Dragons Apprentice, Aqueducts, Tank Warriors, The Passage, Frog Squash and Midnightmare Teddy are included in this first collection of coding games. All are focused on the goal to break down barriers, build confidence and spark curiosity to unlock the power of code." The games can be downloaded as portable Flatpak packages.
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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) |
Why distributions ship with different kernel versions
Comparing-kernels asks: I was wondering why so many distros uses different kernels. Even in Mint there is a difference. LMDE uses 4.9 and Linux Mint Cinnamon uses the 4.15.0 kernel. Surely they should all use the same kernel?
Are there security issues by not using an update kernel? Or is it okay for distros to use any kernel?
DistroWatch answers: There are three main reasons distributions use different versions of the Linux kernel. The first is different distributions ship tend to be released at different times. For example, Ubuntu 18.04 was released in April 2018 and shipped with version 4.15 of the kernel. Fedora 28 came out in May 2018 and used version 4.16 of the kernel. Small differences in release schedules can make for slightly different kernel versions.
The second reason is different projects use different bases, or parent distributions. Going back to the example in the above question, Linux Mint maintains two main branches: one based on Ubuntu and one based on Debian. Linux Mint Debian Edition 3 was based on Debian 9 and uses its parent's version (4.9) of the kernel. Mint's main edition uses Ubuntu 18.04 as its base and inherits the 4.15 kernel.
The third reason is different distributions have slightly different support goals and will sometimes cherry pick their kernels to match. Different kernels are supported by the kernel developers for different lengths of time, with about every fifth version receiving long-term support. Cutting-edge distributions, such as those in the Arch Linux family, will generally use the latest stable release of the kernel. Other projects, like Debian and CentOS, which provide security updates for years, will be more inclined to use a long-term support (LTS) kernel. You can see which kernels receive long-term support commitments at kernel.org.
Are there security issues from not using an updated kernel? Yes, sometimes security holes are found in the kernel and it is a good idea to update the kernel periodically to receive security fixes. That being said, fixed release distributions (those which do not upgrade their packages continually to the latest available version) almost always backport security fixes into older versions of the kernel. This means the kernel package on your distribution may say it is version 4.15.0, but chances are your distribution has applied all known fixes to the package. This means you have the benefit of getting security fixes without also getting new features from the latest kernel.
Mainstream Linux distributions typically maintain a security mailing list which will advertise when new security fixes, including those for the kernel, become available. We track several of them on our Security Notices page.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0
Red Hat has announced the launch of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, a brand new release which ships with GNOME 3.28 running on Wayland as the default desktop environment. The new version also includes an Image Builder utility for creating custom images of the distribution for deployment. "Based on Fedora 28 and the upstream kernel 4.18, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 provides users with a stable, secure, consistent foundation across hybrid cloud deployments with the tools needed to support traditional and emerging workloads. Highlights of the release include: Distribution Content is available through the BaseOS and Application Stream (AppStream) repositories. The AppStream repository supports a new extension of the traditional RPM format - modules. This allows for multiple major versions of a component to be available for install. The YUM package manager is now based on the DNF technology and it provides support for modular content, increased performance, and a well-designed stable API for integration with tooling." Further details can be found in the company's release notes. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 can be downloaded through Red Hat's customer portal.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0 -- Running GNOME Shell
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Project Trident 19.04
Project Trident, a desktop operating system based on TrueOS (derived from FreeBSD's development tree), has been updated to version 19.04. This release continues to use the technologies from the FreeBSD 13.0-CURRENT branch and it comes with updated Lumina desktop environment, version 1.5.0: "Project Trident version 19.04 (based on TrueOS 19.04) is now available. Important changes between 18.12-U8 and 19.04: OS version moved to the latest stable tag from TrueOS - v20190412; packages built from the ports tree as of April 22, 2019 - we expect a fast turnaround with a U1 update to bring us back up to the latest version of the ports tree; the Lumina desktop environment has been updated to version 1.5.0; the Qt 4 libraries and all Qt 4-based utilities have been removed from the upstream FreeBSD ports tree; rEFInd has been incorporated into the Project Trident install ISO image by default; all installations via UEFI will install both rEFInd and the FreeBSD bootloader to more easily support multi-boot situations." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information and a long list of new and updated packages.
LibreELEC 9.0.2
LibreELEC is a minimal Linux distribution for running the Kodi media centre software. The LibreELEC team has published a new release, LibreELEC 9.0.2, which introduces new default firewall tools for protection on public networks, moves system updates to their own menu, and makes it possible to change secure shell passwords. There are some new features too: "LibreELEC 9.0.2 (Leia) has arrived based upon Kodi v18.2, the 9.0.2 release contains many changes and refinements to user experience and a complete overhaul of the underlying OS core to improve stability and extend hardware support. Kodi v18 also brings new features like Kodi Retroplayer and DRM support that (equipped with an appropriate add-on) allows Kodi to unofficially stream content from services like Netflix and Amazon." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
OpenIndiana 2019.04
Alexander Pyhalov has announced the release of OpenIndiana 2019.04, the latest stable build of the project's open-source operating system, originally forked from the discontinued OpenSolaris project. This version integrates VirtualBox packages into the operating system and updates many packages, including the MATE desktop and the Firefox browser: "We have released a new OpenIndiana Hipster snapshot 2019.04. The noticeable changes: Firefox was updated to 60.6.3 ESR; VirtualBox packages were added (including guest additions); MATE was updated to 1.22; IPS has received updates from OmniOS CE and Oracle IPS repositories, including automatic boot environment naming; some OpenIndiana-specific applications have been ported from Python 2.7 and GTK 2 to Python 3.5 and GTK 3. Known issues: Firefox can fail to spawn child processes on first launch, after restart it runs fine; in some scenarios Firefox hangs or crashes - in many cases enlarging the swap helps." See the release announcement and the detailed release notes for further information.
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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: 1,403
- Total data uploaded: 25.4TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Which kernel version are you running?
In our Questions and Answers column we discussed different distributions shipping different versions of the Linux kernel. With some distributions providing rolling release updates and others offering ten years of support, there is a wide range of kernel versions running in the world today. We would like to know which version of the kernel you are running - are you trying out the latest and greatest, or are you sticking with tried and true releases?
You can see the results of our previous poll on erasing application changes from the filesystem in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Which kernel version are you running?
| Very recent - 5.x: | 761 (35%) |
| Fairly recent - 4.x: | 1262 (58%) |
| Older version - 3.x: | 46 (2%) |
| Much older - 2.x: | 24 (1%) |
| Very old - pre-2.x: | 4 (0%) |
| Unknown: | 37 (2%) |
| I am not running the Linux kernel: | 41 (2%) |
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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, 20 May 2019. 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 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Issue 993 (2022-11-07): Static Linux, working with just a kernel, Mint streamlines Flatpak management, updates coming to elementary OS |
| • Full list of all issues |
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BEE free
BEE free (formerly BeeFree OS) was a desktop Linux distribution based on Ubuntu. It features the KDE Plasma desktop environment and various customisation, such as the inclusion of Epson printer drivers, GRUB customiser, Python 3 integrated with the Visual Studio code, and WPS Office. The project started life as a Linux Mint-based distribution with the Cinnamon desktop, but switched to KDE neon base in the third quarter of 2019, and then to an Ubuntu base in 2020.
Status: Discontinued
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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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