 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: 8.2/10 from 271 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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| Linux Foundation Training |
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| Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Kernel (by brad on 2019-05-13 00:38:46 GMT from United States)
I've been running Manjaro for a few years now, and I find that the combination of an LTS kernel, with up-to-date (non-kernel) software to be the best environment for me. I've not encountered any issues.
That said, I wonder if if the hardware I use has as much (or more) impact on the stability that I see. I tend to stay away from NVIDIA graphics, and Realtek peripherals where possible, preferring to have an all-Intel machine. I've also had good luck with HP and Lenovo gear, and find Dell and Samsung more troublesome. YMMV. Interested to see how others feel...
2 • Kernel version (by Jim on 2019-05-13 00:42:59 GMT from United States)
I run the kernel from the OS I am using. I update my OS and packages regularly, so I get the fixes the OS wants. I tried Ukuu on Ubuntu Mate, when I had a kernel that failed to support my Broadcom Wireless, but that was confusing. I know just go back to the older kernel version until the next update if there is a problem. I always keep at least one old kernel version.
3 • Kernel (by DaveW on 2019-05-13 00:57:15 GMT from United States)
My daily driver (Linux Mint 18) uses 4.4, which is not a very recent version. I do multi-boot several different distros with newer kernel versions.
4 • kernels and hardware (by Bobbie Sellers on 2019-05-13 02:05:35 GMT from United States)
I like that my distribution PCLinux makes the latest kernel available as well as
Long Term Support versions.
In hardware I have had bad luck with HP machines.
Barely had four years of life from each, both were laptops.
I use Dell Latitudes E6510, E6540 presently, I have used
used E6420s in the past and my longest lived x86 machine
was a Dell Inspiron 4000 from the late 1990s.
Before that I used an Amiga 2000b a large desktop machine
that had been expanded with accelerator and video cards but
after the battery leaked onto the main-board it was not too
reliable.
bliss
5 • Fedora 30 (by Niyas C on 2019-05-13 03:55:37 GMT from Singapore)
I was using Fedora 30 BETA for past few days. I know that, Fedora 30 is officially released, but did n't get time to update.
Yesterday, the system got crashed while attempting to run unetbootin with Wayland session and failed to boot again. Many services were failing during boot.
So, I decided to discard Fedora and did a fresh installation of Ubuntu 19.04 Basic Mode. It is working smooth so far, after removing some resource consuming background activities like tracker & search everywhere and animations.
6 • Kernel (by P Tyerman on 2019-05-13 04:00:36 GMT from United Kingdom)
My main machine and my multimedia machine are both running the 4.9 series kernels as that is what the standard updates install. I very rarely move away from what the distro provides as default.
I also run some older stuff like X-Amiga and Damn Small Linux on older machines that use the 2.6 and 2.4 series kernels, and sometimes one or two that use the 3.x series.
It only seems like yesterday since the change from 2.4 to 2.6, how time fly's, getting old sux!
7 • kernel (by Titus_Groan on 2019-05-13 04:42:32 GMT from New Zealand)
5.1.series here, Distro default for this release.
4.14 series for previous, still supported, release.
Likewise @6, I install Distro updates, including kernel, when provided.
8 • Very Recent Kernel (by Roy on 2019-05-13 05:17:37 GMT from United States)
Sticking with UbuntuMATE and the 5x.
9 • Kernel version (by Jeff Joshua Rollin on 2019-05-13 05:41:06 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'm running Arch Linux as my main distro (though yesterday I installed, and have so far been very impressed with, Open Mandriva 4.0RC, so I may switch), and interestingly OMV is using a newer kernel (5.1) than was available in Arch stable as of 2300 GMT. I'm also multi-booting various BSDs, Openindiana and Haiku and just using their stock kernels (though Haiku is a nightly from a few days ago and none of those are Linux, of course). I'm surprised by Brad's comments on Dell and HP because Dell officially ship Linux, whilst while I don't have direct experience of HP hardware I've heard more comments along the line of Bobbie Sellers'. Like Jim, I do often keep LTS kernels around if I'm running more recent versions (particularly if running Manjaro, when I'll often run their experimental kernels with more stable software). And P Tyerman, I remember gushing over a boxed copy of Mandrake Linux I was given with kernel 2.4 - I feel your pain!
10 • kernels (by zykoda on 2019-05-13 07:05:42 GMT from United Kingdom)
Apart from run of the mill applications, usually installed from a distro's repositories I have been experimenting with parallel algorithms coded in C/Fortran. I use both the PGI community editions and the gcc collection. In comparison gcc lags in development wrt PGI. I am using the nvidia 418.56 driver with CUDA10.1. Using openmp, openacc and/or cuda allows the speed of execution of applications to be increased by factors of 10 to 20, sometimes beyond, on my very humble FX8320/GTX1050 hardware. I find the version of the kernel matters only in that the installed development environment be viable. Both utilisation of many CPU cores and GPU are easliy achievable with very minor changes to the single core CPU code. The bang for your buck is well worth the effort when the algorithms can be parallelised. I am currently using Ubuntu-mate1904 and mint18.3.
11 • Unknown kernel (by Pikolo on 2019-05-13 07:14:30 GMT from Poland)
Maybe we should tell users to use uname -r to verify their kernel version? The two people who voted unknown kernel could have learned something.
12 • Fedora 30 trouble after upgrade (by MCBuhl on 2019-05-13 07:40:27 GMT from Germany)
I upgraded to Fedora 30 one week ago and ran into an interesting bug that logging in wasn't possible: the login screen reappeared after any attempt. It turned out that there's a problem with Gnome extension that can be worked around by switching into console mode login and manually disabling any extension. Then logging into a Gnome Session is possible.
This workaround is well documented in ask.fedora.com...
Oddly enough, I could meanwhile re-activate all my extensions and it works as expected. 🤔
13 • kernel (by usman on 2019-05-13 07:53:43 GMT from United States)
kubuntu 18.04, linux kernel 5.1.1
using mainline ppa & mesa pkppa because i like ubuntu based but want the latest stable driver for my amd system.
thanks developers, maintainers & everybody who make this possible.
14 • Kernel version (by Hadrian Ferran on 2019-05-13 09:31:12 GMT from Netherlands)
I'm using 5.0.7 right now. I've got a fairly recent laptop which requires a wifidriver that's fairly shaky. Since moving to 5.0.7 it seems more stable.
15 • Kernel (by KC1DI on 2019-05-13 10:02:32 GMT from United States)
I've been using the 4.19 kernel for awhile and it meets my needs. tried 5.0 but my broadcom wifi card does not like it yet. Will try later.
16 • Kernel (by dragonmouth on 2019-05-13 12:49:17 GMT from United States)
PCLinuxOS current as of this morning. I alternate between the latest available kernel (currently 5.1.1) and a 4.19.x kernel. I used to use 4.20.x kernel but they were removed from the PCLOS repositories.
17 • Fedora update restarts (by Fedora waffler on 2019-05-13 13:39:10 GMT from United States)
I keep wanting to use Fedora however I just can't get over having to reboot after every/any update. So I just end up going back to Ubuntu based flavor.
18 • Fedora (by Dr. E.S. Ktorp on 2019-05-13 13:40:49 GMT from United States)
"the Privacy panel had options to disable the camera and microphone, but these options did not work."
Gee, what a surprise. I guarantee that after this bug seems to be fixed, the data miners over at Gnome Corp will still have access to your camera and mic.
19 • What and Why? (by Garon on 2019-05-13 13:48:58 GMT from United States)
I'm on kernel 5.1.1 using Ubuntu 19.04
@18, What are you talking about? Why did you say that and can you prove it?
20 • Kernel (by wolf-nv on 2019-05-13 13:49:40 GMT from United States)
Using Sparky Linux "Testing" since I fought my way out of the EVIL Microsoft Empire about 8yrs ago and am quite satisfied! At the present moment I'm using the 5.1.1 kernel and love it!
I,ve only had one problem, I test distros using VBox and when I tried to install the newest version, I ran into a problem with "linux-image", it seemed that no matter what I did "no go"!
Well, decided to try something out of the box. I booted up the generic Debian kernel 4.19 - installed VBox 6.0.6 with no probs then switched back. no probs!!
21 • Kernel version... (by Friar Tux on 2019-05-13 14:02:50 GMT from Canada)
Don't really care. Whatever comes with the OS version I presently use, so long as everything plays nice together. That is my priority - does everything work together, out-of-box.
22 • @ 18 pure rubbish (by mandog on 2019-05-13 14:21:52 GMT from Peru)
he Privacy panel had options to disable the camera and microphone, but these options did not work."
Gee, what a surprise. I guarantee that after this bug seems to be fixed, the data miners over at Gnome Corp will still have access to your camera and mic.
You are talking out and out rubbish Data miners are the Gnome indexing system nothing more and can be removed.
@9 I'm running Arch Linux as my main distro (though yesterday I installed, and have so far been very impressed with, Open Mandriva 4.0RC, so I may switch), and interestingly OMV is using a newer kernel (5.1) than was available in Arch stable as of 2300 GMT
Update your mirrors i had 3 5.1 updates last week on pure Arch.
23 • Kernels and spying gnomes (by Andre on 2019-05-13 15:07:05 GMT from United States)
(off-topic)
24 • wayland and xfce (by Dirk from Germany on 2019-05-13 15:15:39 GMT from Germany)
in principle I am accepting the progress coming up by the Wayland, especially the more security. My issue with Wayland is about the desktops. I love Xfce and I hate Gnome. Unfortunately Xfce doesn't support Wayland. So what happens to the Xce version of Debian ?
There is one essential Point: the Gnome Desktop is disgusting !!
25 • Kernel version? Why, I use the best one of course :-) (by RoboNuggie on 2019-05-13 15:25:43 GMT from United Kingdom)
FreeBSD 12.0-RELEASE-p3
26 • Flatpak (by whoKnows on 2019-05-13 15:43:11 GMT from United Kingdom)
I'll not make any comments on the choice/number, quality or 'integration/look' issues of Flatpak -- they are as they are and are all very well known but, I'd like to remind you to check if they get any updates at all.
In my case, "Software" ignored the Flatpak packages and (almost) each time when I did a manual check, there was an update available for some app.
I'm not claiming that's always or for everybody the case but, am only trying to make you aware that you might be facing that same issue too.
https://blogs.gnome.org/mclasen/2018/08/02/on-flatpak-updates/
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/1399
https://www.mankier.com/1/flatpak-update
http://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/using-flatpak.html
I personally, consider Fedora software repository unusable -- too many important (to me) things are missing and even those which are there will work only partialy (because of some missing, deprecated dependencies) or not work at all (because they don't work together with Wayland).
27 • kernel versions (by Tim on 2019-05-13 16:08:49 GMT from United States)
I think this discussion will be interesting, but most of the useful stories will come from people running rolling releases. I think there's very little reason to not use the default kernel a stable release has, unless it doesn't work well for one's particular hardware and one knows that it is a kernel problem. With a rolling release one has to be careful because support for different devices can change radically. I was running fglrx when Debian Testing dropped it and that was an interesting few days.
What's been interesting for me has been using an old Chromebook running crouton and thus multiple distros in a chroot with the native Chrome Linux kernel. I would get warnings that I was running a 3.16 kernel and the software was compiled for a 4.9 kernel, but that was pretty much it. The software all worked fine. This made me think that as far as the kernel is concerned, as long as it is in security support and makes your hardware work well, keeping it bleeding edge doesn't really matter.
28 • Keep it on (by Garon on 2019-05-13 16:09:54 GMT from United States)
@23, Wow. I had better keep my shirt on then.
Has anyone thought about doing a review on UALinux?
29 • @11 • Unknown kernel (by Rev_Don on 2019-05-13 16:51:34 GMT from United States)
"Maybe we should tell users to use uname -r to verify their kernel version? The two people who voted unknown kernel could have learned something."
Why? I already know how to do that and I wouldn't be surprised if many of the others who voted unknown do as well. I don't run a Linux system 24/7 as many of the programs I need simply will not function properly (if at all) under Linux. Because of this I use numerous Live CD/DVD/USBs like Knoppix, Parted Magic, Tails, etc. I don't feel it is worth my time to boot up each one and find out what Kernel is in each, nor do I really care. I don't modify these distros so whatever they come with is fine and doesn't really matter as long as they work.
That said, when I did run Linux as a primary install OS I did know and care what Kernel it used and would update it when appropriate.
30 • Fedora update restarts (by whoKnows on 2019-05-13 17:12:37 GMT from United Kingdom)
@17 • Fedora update restarts (by Fedora waffler)
If that's your only reason against using Fedora, then there's an easy solution for it: simply do it over the command line.
https://www.rootusers.com/25-useful-dnf-command-examples-for-package-management-in-linux/
https://dnf.readthedocs.io/en/latest/command_ref.html
31 • Kernel version issues (by john on 2019-05-13 19:04:31 GMT from Canada)
Since this week is about kernels, just curious if anyone else has hit these kinds of problems. I have a Dell laptop that works perfectly on 3.xx kernels, and 5 seems to be fine too, but anything in the 4 series causes screen flicker (really annoying, to the point of being unusable). And my other laptop, anything up to 4.15 works perfectly, but higher than that and it won't shutdown / suspend. I know the kernel is an ever-changing thing, but it's annoying when stuff that used to work perfectly fine suddenly breaks.
32 • Fedora 30 (by pfbruce on 2019-05-13 19:44:03 GMT from United States)
I am amazed that no one has commented on Fedora's new boot loader. The one that inserts stuff into the kernel. My experience is that it only boots Windows as an alternate system. It recognizes Opensuse, Magiea, and Mint, but will not boot them (or even offer them as a choice).
When Opensuse 15.1 come along, I will see if it can live with Fedora, If not, I think I can live without Fedora.
33 • Gnome Calendar not available in default application list (by MCBuhl on 2019-05-13 19:56:31 GMT from Germany)
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-calendar/issues/337
34 • Fedora Review Spellcheck (by Abhijeet on 2019-05-13 21:46:37 GMT from India)
First line of 2nd section "To being installing Fedora..." >> 'begin'
35 • Linux Mint's kernel management (by eco2geek on 2019-05-14 05:36:42 GMT from United States)
Linux Mint 19.1, which is based on Ubuntu 18.04, has a unique kernel management utility. Ubuntu versions are usually based on a single version of a kernel -- v4.15 in this case -- and then offer bug fixes, so, for example, we're now up to kernel version 4.15.0-48. Linux Mint has a utility that currently will allow the end user to install the kernel(s) of their choice, from version 4.15.0-20 to 4.15.0-48. The utility also offers information such as bug reports and changelogs for each kernel.
(Since Ubuntu 18.04 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release, it also came out with a "hardware enablement stack" featuring a newer kernel, version 4.18. So you can install that one as well. Linux Mint's kernel utility currently allows you to install versions 4.18.0-13 through 4.18.0-18.)
I usually go with the most recent kernel version available, although I've anecdotally found that kernels in the v4.15 series works better with my graphics hardware than kernel v4.18.
Incidentally, Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, which just reached EOL at the end of April, which was based on kernel 3.13, made it all the way up to kernel v3.13.0-112.
36 • Kernel management (by whoKnows on 2019-05-14 06:16:27 GMT from United Kingdom)
35 • Linux Mint's kernel management (by eco2geek)
Actually, Linux Mint / Ubuntu 14.04 LTS made it all the way up to kernel v4.4.x
Linux Mint 19.1, has a unique but, very limited kernel management utility. It'll only give you the choice of Ubuntu 18.04 Kernels which is good and bad at the same time.
Ubuntu is regularly updating their Kernel, adds new features as you said and is pretty much very stable and reliable but, it's nothing for the 'Kernel fiddlering freaks' which must have the 'latest and greatest', even if the computer crashes on every second boot (somewhat exagerated).
For those who want to play around with Kernels on SOMEbuntus, there's one indispensable utility -- Ukuu.
https://teejeetech.in/ukuu/
No need to say, you should better make a backup before you start fiddling around with Kernels.
37 • Wayland (by Jack on 2019-05-14 11:37:19 GMT from United States)
Wayland is the technology of the future... and it always will be. Other than the fact that absolutely nothing runs on it, it's the best display protocol ever created by man.
38 • 14.04 (by Tim on 2019-05-14 13:20:05 GMT from United States)
@ 35, 36
14.04 LTS made it all the way to 4.4 depending on how you installed it/choices you made.
My most recent copy of 14.04 was installed from a 14.04-5 iso, and it came with the 4.4 series (which i think was backported from 16.04)
My understanding is that previous installs of 14.04 didn't default to the newer series unless the user specifically opted in.
Interestingly, one of the last 4.4 kernels that my computer (a virtualbox image) tried to install broke the ability to install the guest additions. So I reverted to an earlier one that still worked and removed network access (this was like a month ago, and I plan on keeping the machine running indefinitely)
39 • 14.04 & Mint (by whoKnows on 2019-05-14 14:24:18 GMT from United Kingdom)
38 • 14.04 (by Tim)
"14.04 LTS made it all the way to 4.4 depending on how you installed it/choices you made."
Yes, that's correct, however I was referring more to the: "Linux Mint XX.X, which is based on Ubuntu XX.XX, has a unique kernel management utility."
This 'management utility' was included in Linux Mint 17.x too, it just didn't look as good as in 19.x -- but, it was there and it offered (if I still remember correct) Kernels from 3.13.x to 4.4.x. One had to explicitely choose and install newer Kernel versions.
There were a couple of 4.4 series Kernels that didn't play well, if at all, with VirtualBox.
I had Mint 17.3 as my main computer until recently and it's purpose was running VM's. I can't say much to Mint as guest since I never used it (as a guest on VBox) inside VM.
40 • @39 - Re: Ubuntu 14.04's default kernel (by eco2geek on 2019-05-14 15:33:38 GMT from United States)
If you installed Ubuntu 14.04 right when it came out, and never opted in to a newer kernel, you got kernel v3.13.
The point I was trying to make was that, even though Ubuntu isn't a rolling release, they do frequently update their existing kernels with security and bug fixes. Their last release of kernel 3.13 for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, for example, was version 112 (kernel v3.13.0-112).
(When I was running a Linux distro based on Debian Sid, I used to get newer kernels as they came out, and I also used to compile my own. Now that I'm older and lazier, and since Ubuntu has proven to work well over time, I just go with the kernels they produce.)
41 • kernels (by Tim on 2019-05-14 18:04:47 GMT from United States)
@41
That was what I thought, thank you. Your experience mirrors mine- the generic kernel hasn't been an issue for me in a while.
42 • Kernel management software (by Morton F. on 2019-05-14 18:18:12 GMT from Ukraine)
The provided above link to UKUU (#36 Kernel management) is not for open-source but for commercial version. Old open-source UKUU has some issues and is unmaintained. Anyway with UKUU you can get only mainline kernels which don't have Ubuntu patches. If you can deal with incompatibility issues of mainline kernels then using three terminal command to install any kernel isn't that difficult and it is not sensible to use closed source UKUU that requires root access.
Linux Mint 19.1 kernel management utility currently allows to install Ubuntu kernels 4.15 or 4.18 series and to conveniently remove installed kernels, including manually installed ones.
43 • Re: update your mirrors (by Jeff Joshua Rollin on 2019-05-14 19:34:30 GMT from United Kingdom)
Mandog, you must be running testing. I'm on stable. It works so I'm unwilling to (potentially) junk it for now.
44 • machine distro kernel (by mmphosis on 2019-05-14 23:06:01 GMT from Canada)
Dell laptop Debian9.9 4.9.0-9-amd64
This older Dell is reliable with the exception of the odd EUFI/Secure boot/firmware issue.
Dell laptop Xubuntu18 4.4.0-146-generic
Thankfully, this Dell laptop is no longer capable of running the horrible OS that came with it: Win10. Happily running Xubuntu with very very few problems for years now.
Raspberry pi Raspbian 4.1.19+
The Raspberry pi is my favorite device and is very reliable, although no battery backup power, and the clock gets out of whack.
45 • kernel management, Ukuu (by El Maco on 2019-05-15 01:56:31 GMT from United Kingdom)
It has been possible for quite a while to install Ubuntu mainline kernels from the PPA by downloading the .deb file and installing. Ukuu, as the developer himself says, is just a convenience. There are no "issues" (as per @42) with the older version, as far as I know. I use it regularly. It's still available from GitHub. The developer just decided to stop working for free, or almost free. (As in beer.) "Donate" doesn't seem to work.The new version is closed-source and requires payment. Anyone interested can find the info on the website. I'm not adding links, etc. here because I figure anyone who can't find the info by themselves should probably not be playing around with the kernel.
I understand why Ukuu's developer changed. I'm always amazed (and thankful) at the variety of software available at no cost. I was at the website of of the SuperX distro the other day. Middle of the month, and they listed their largest and only donor at the princely sum of $1.00. Good luck to them.
46 • "Ubuntu snapshot" vs. "Fedora rawhide" (Distrowatch terminology) (by Greg Zeng on 2019-05-15 04:08:12 GMT from United Kingdom)
Tried to install Fedora, but my Dell XPS-15 (2013 model) refused to let it install. So I tried Ubuntu, to trial the latest GNOME desktop & applications.
Using the Distrowatch "search" utility, it allowed me to compare "Ubuntu snapshot" vs. "Fedora rawhide". What are these operating systems? How did Distrowatch allow me to compare the file names in each of these unofficial operating systems?
I'm guessing now: are these file comparisons made after each operating system is allowed to update to the latest officially available files?
47 • snapshot (by Tim on 2019-05-15 12:23:45 GMT from United States)
I don't know about Rawhide, but my impression of Ubuntu Snapshot is that it's what's currently in the development branch (in this case 19.10 eoan ermine.)
48 • @47 - Fedora Rawhide (by eco2geek on 2019-05-15 22:16:08 GMT from United States)
From https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Releases/Rawhide --
"Rawhide is the name given to the current development version of Fedora. It consists of a
package repository called "rawhide" and contains the latest build of all Fedora packages
updated on a daily basis. Each day, an attempt is made to create a full set of 'deliverables'
(installation images and so on), and all that compose successfully are included in the
Rawhide tree for that day."
Since they also produce ISOs, it's pretty similar to Ubuntu daily builds of the next release.
@42: Linux Mint's kernel management utility recently added kernel v5.0.
49 • 43 • Re: update your mirrors (by mandog on 2019-05-15 22:19:02 GMT from Peru)
Arch stable is what it says the latest stable software, But yes I have used testing for years never had a problem with it and forget I ever use it.
50 • Kudos to Centos (by Kingneutron on 2019-05-16 01:21:04 GMT from United States)
...for keeping their user base informed with the build process. :)
/ however, if it takes longer than 2 weeks to get out the door they may riot :b
51 • @48 Kernel management software (by Morton F. on 2019-05-16 04:26:39 GMT from Ukraine)
Thanks!
I'm using now Linux Mint 19.2 kernel utility. It has enhanced functionality and supports low-latency kernels:
mintupdate_5.4.7-unstable-201904051116~ubuntu18.04.1_all.deb
It is available from the "Linux Mint Daily Builds - Launchpad.net" page (to download .deb file just navigate to "View package details"). I successfully installed it in Linux Mint 19 and 19.1.
52 • #50: CentOS 8 (by Distrowitch on 2019-05-16 17:48:32 GMT from United States)
@50: It will take more than two weeks. It's a major set of changes, the kind we typically see once in five years from Red Hat. Everything has to be built, and I do mean everything. I don't see either CentOS or Springdale Linux getting it done that fast. Better to get it right in any case. Also, expect non-Intel builds and 32-bit builds to take considerably longer. (Yes, there has been discussion of doing a 32-but build on developer lists and in the fora.)
53 • Fedora 30 (by Toran on 2019-05-16 18:31:36 GMT from Belgium)
F30 recognised my external Wifi USB Mediatek AC600 TPlink. Did not recognise my Samsung CLX3180 printer. Connection with internet regulary felt out. Changes to Arco. F30 is not yet mature.
54 • Devuan (by Phil on 2019-05-17 18:27:39 GMT from United States)
I migrated from Linux Mint 18 to Devuan ASCII. I'm running a 4.9 kernel on an old Acer Aspire, and 5.0 on Artix Linux on a MacPro circa 2008. No problems with either because I'm systemd-free! Whoo-hoo!
55 • @54 Devuan ASCII (by bobtronworldwide on 2019-05-17 21:05:28 GMT from United States)
Whoo-hoo!..me too!..only a few niggity-diggity tweaks but it plays ball very well.. may i ask are you using MIYO-64..it rocks also...tnx!
56 • Devuan vs. Mint (by hmmm on 2019-05-18 08:53:45 GMT from United Kingdom)
I have them both and they both work just fine.
I just fail to see how Devuan could become a replacement for Mint.
It's a kind of replacing a car (automobile = transportation of humans) with a tractor (agricultural machinery).
57 • great poll question because... (by tom joad... on 2019-05-18 14:52:44 GMT from United States)
great poll question because...after I voted I thought I should do the autoremove thingie. Yup, I freed up 668mb of space!
Thanx Jesse!
58 • Silly Fads (by M.Z. on 2019-05-18 18:18:14 GMT from United States)
@56
It strikes me much more like the gluten free fad. Sure, you can avoid wheat protein if you want, and for a tiny fraction of people it may even be an actual necessity; however, for the vast majority of dieters/init users, there is no real benefit to all the extra work of avoiding something like gluten/systemd. They also have in common the fact that the more you want to talk about it the less impressed I am. I suppose gluten free is stupider, because a nice multi-grain bread with out extra added processed garbage is actually an important part of most healthy diets, while systemd has no real added benefits to end users that I can see. It just floats around turning on Linux distros while being GPL software that is as free & open as most other init alternatives while being a bit more complex. People love to hyper ventilate about silly meaningless fads.
59 • @ 58 (by akoy on 2019-05-19 05:52:50 GMT from United Kingdom)
The never ending anger with the Linux community!
If we support open source, if we support Linux world, we should be happy at any and every development move in it. The choices galore. We should like everything, even if we don`t use them. One`s like/dislike is a personal thing, as nothing to do with Linux development.
No one in the Windows or Appe forums say anything against Linux, or anything against each other. So, why we are so toxic?
60 • @59: (by dragonmouth on 2019-05-19 12:34:04 GMT from United States)
"One`s like/dislike is a personal thing, as nothing to do with Linux development. "
Individual like/dislike has everything to do with Linux development. If Poettering and Red Hat did not like systemd, it would not have been developed. If they liked SysVinit, there would be no systemd. If Shuttleworth did not like Snaps or Unity, those projects would have died on the vine. If Shuttleworth did not like having applications that he could control, Canonical would not be developing their own versions of popular apps. Canonical did not drop Unity from Ubuntu because it is a bad interface, they dropped it because users in general did not like it. If you bother to see, there are many other examples.
"No one in the Windows or Appe forums say anything against Linux"
Which forums do you frequent?!
"So, why we are so toxic?"
Because of the choices that Linux offers us. I guess, in your opinion, we should all STFU and march in lock step behind a single distro like the Windows and OS/X users are doing? You would like to see Linux become a walled prison like Windows or OS/X.
Number of Comments: 60
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| • 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 |
| • Issue 992 (2022-10-31): Lubuntu 22.10, setting permissions on home directories, Linux may drop i486, Fedora delays next version for OpenSSL bug |
| • Issue 991 (2022-10-24): XeroLinux 2022.09, learning who ran sudo, exploring firewall tools, Rolling Rhino Remix gets a fresh start, Fedora plans to revamp live media |
| • Issue 990 (2022-10-17): ravynOS 0.4.0, Lion Linux 3.0, accessing low numbered network ports, Pop!_OS makes progress on COSMIC, Murena launches new phone |
| • Issue 989 (2022-10-10): Ubuntu Unity, kernel bug causes issues with Intel cards, Canonical offers free Ubuntu Pro subscriptions, customizing the command line prompt |
| • Issue 988 (2022-10-03): SpiralLinux 11.220628, finding distros for older equipment and other purposes, SUSE begins releasing ALP prototypes, Debian votes on non-free firmware in installer |
| • Issue 987 (2022-09-26): openSUSE's MicroOS, converting people to using Linux, pfSense updates base system and PHP, Python 2 dropped from Arch |
| • Issue 986 (2022-09-19): Porteus 5.0, remotely wiping a hard drive, a new software centre for Ubuntu, Proxmox offers offline updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Bio-Linux
Bio-Linux was a full-featured, powerful, configurable and easy-to-maintain bioinformatics workstation. Bio-Linux provides more than 500 bioinformatics programs on an Ubuntu base. There was a graphical menu for bioinformatics programs, as well as easy access to the Bio-Linux bioinformatics documentation system and sample data useful for testing programs. Bio-Linux packages that handle new generation sequence data types can also be installed.
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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