 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 815, 20 May 2019 |
Welcome to this year's 20th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Security vulnerabilities, particularly those which affect hardware, such as CPUs, have been in the news media more frequently during the past year. Research into this area has raised awareness about how low-level components, like firmware and kernels, interact with our hardware. All of the terminology around low-level security concerns can be confusing, so this week we link to two articles about recent vulnerabilities. Our News section shares resources from Red Hat and Bleeping Computer to help people understand current threats and their fixes. Plus we talk about Clear Linux showcasing tools and current-edge packages for developers. In our Tips and Tricks column we discuss options for running GNU/Linux and Busybox/Linux distributions on mobile devices and we ask if our readers are using these platforms in our Opinion Poll. First though, we share a review of the Sabayon distribution. Sabayon is part of the Gentoo family and offers several editions for desktop and server roles. Robert Rijkhoff dives into what it's like to use Sabayon in our Feature Story. As usual, we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and provide links to the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Sabayon 19.03
- News: Clear Linux outlines features for developers, Red Hat explains MDS flaws, developers patch Linux networking vulnerability
- Tips and tricks: Overview of options for running open Linux distros on mobile devices (2019 edition)
- Released last week: Emmabuntus DE2-1.04, ArcoLinux 19.05.2, Peppermint OS 10
- Torrent corner: ArchBang, ArcoLinux, Bluestar, Container, deepin, Emmabuntus, IPFire, KDE neon, Obarun, OpenMediaVault, PBXware, Peppermint, Plamo, Robolinux, Ultimate
- Upcoming releases: Tails 3.14, openSUSE 15.1
- Opinion poll: Do you run a GNU/Linux distribution on a mobile device?
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Robert Rijkhoff) |
Sabayon 19.03
Sabayon is an Italian Linux operating system based on Gentoo. According to its home page, Sabayon is a "beginner-friendly" distro in which "everything should just work". What's more, Sabayon describes itself as "a bleeding edge operating system that is both stable and reliable".
There are three flavours to choose from. Apart from the Desktop edition, which I will review in this article, there are also Server and Cloud images. For the Desktop edition you can download a 64-bit ISO for five different desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, Xfce, MATE and Fluxbox. I mainly looked at the GNOME edition but also gave Fluxbox a quick spin.
Live environment and first impressions
The GNOME image is a 2.4GB download and the default option is to run Sabayon as a live environment. You are logged into the GNOME desktop automatically and presented with a "Welcome" window with an install button and links to various online resources. The wallpaper is a colourful, Cubist twirl and features the Sabayon logo with the slogan "simplicity is sophistication".
Sabayon 19.03 -- The welcome screen
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Sabayon has made a few tweaks to the GNOME desktop; by default applications use a dark theme and there is an applications menu in the top bar. The menu is quite handy as GNOME's default applications overview has a limited amount of space for application names (11 characters, to be precise). That works fine for GNOME applications, as their names tend to be delightfully short and descriptive ("Files", "Contacts", "Web", etc.). The overview doesn't work so great for applications with longer names. For instance, when I launched the overview I saw names like "Avahi SSH S ...", "Avahi VNC S ..." and "Avahi Zeroc ...". These three applications also use the same icon, making it difficult to quickly see which is which.
Sabayon 19.03 -- GNOME's applications overview
(full image size: 1.1MB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Another thing I noticed while exploring the live environment is that Sabayon isn't as "bleeding edge" as you might expect. Most software was fairly up to date but there were two major exceptions: systemd was at version 239 and the GNOME desktop was at version 3.26.2. When I did the install systemd was at version 241 and GNOME had just released version 3.32.
Installation
The last time we reviewed Sabayon, in March 2018, the distro failed to install. For about an hour or so I feared that the 19.03 release suffered from a similar issue. The latest version of Sabayon uses the Calamares installer, which has never caused me any issues. This time, however, the installer would invariably fail to create partitions. Simply relaunching the installer would cause it to hang when trying to get information about existing partitions.
Sabayon 19.03 -- One of the many failed attempts to install Sabayon
(full image size: 720kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
To cut a long story short, the installation failed whenever I selected the option to encrypt my laptop's hard drive, and before I could relaunch the installer I had to wipe (and optionally recreate) existing partitions using GParted or a similar tool. This was disappointing, as "full disk encryption support" was one of the few items in the release notes that had caught my eye.
The GNOME experience
The GNOME edition ships with a fairly standard set of applications. You get everything from Firefox and the Evolution e-mail client to HexChat and Transmission. Among the more unusual applications are the above-mentioned Avahi local networking tools and various applications for writing Python code. There is also a "Sabayon" section in the applications menu, which provides links to online documentation and help.
All applications, with the exception of Firefox, use a dark theme. Oddly, the theme shown as being in use in GNOME Tweaks (which comes pre-installed) is the default, non-dark Arc theme. I am not sure why Tweaks is showing the wrong theme but switching to a lighter theme was easy enough.
Sabayon 19.03 -- LibreOffice and the GNOME calculator
(full image size: 645kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I also don't quite understand why Sabayon lists five session options on the login page. The options in the drop-down menu are XSession, GNOME, GNOME (again), GNOME Classic and Custom. When I selected XSession I was simply thrown back to the login screen, while the two GNOME options and Custom all logged me into Sabayon's customised GNOME desktop. Sabayon doesn't appear to have support for Wayland.
Those minor issues aside, the GNOME desktop performed very well. The desktop environment was responsive, all applications worked as expected and I could play any type of multimedia file out of the box (Flash is not installed by default but, given the state of Flash, I see that as a bonus).
Package management
Another item mentioned in the release notes for Sabayon 19.03 is "work on progress for the new wiki". The new wiki is being developed on GitHub, though at the time of this review it is almost completely empty. The old wiki does indeed need a bit of an overhaul - all the pages I looked at hadn't been updated for several years. As far as I can tell the information is mostly still relevant and I did find the wiki useful.
Unless you are a seasoned Gentoo user you should definitely read the wiki entry about Entropy, which is Sabayon's binary package management system. Sabayon is based on Gentoo and you can use Gentoo's Portage package manager, but most users will probably want to install binary packages rather than compile everything from source. As an aside, using both Entropy and Portage is possible but not recommended.
Entropy's command line package manager is Equo. The basic commands for searching, installing, removing and upgrading packages are intuitive: "equo search <package>" will perform a search, "equo install <package> will install a package and so forth. However, towards the bottom of the Entropy wiki entry are instructions for upgrading a freshly installed copy of Sabayon, which are a lot more involved. It includes information about optimising mirrors (i.e. making sure that you are downloading packages from a fast source), updating and upgrading the system and checking if there are any missing dependencies.
Sabayon 19.03 -- Updating the system using Equo
(full image size: 232kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Software updates were applied rather slowly - updating a handful of packages could easily take 15 minutes - and I found Equo's output difficult to read because of the use of purple and red text on a black background. Another oddity was that Equo would regularly ask me to read and accept an individual package's license when updating or installing software. This comes across as the command line equivalent of websites forcing you to accept lengthy privacy notices written in Legalese (i.e. it is a nuisance). I couldn't find an option to always accept licenses and therefore had to keep an eye on Equo's output.
Major kernel upgrades and Rigo
The documentation section about upgrading a fresh Sabayon install mentions that Equo is unable to automatically upgrade the kernel to a new major version. Upgrading the kernel appears to be quite a manual process. If you prefer to avoid manually upgrading the kernel by copying and pasting commands from a somewhat out of date wiki, an easy work around is to do a fresh install whenever a new ISO is published (which seems to happen roughly once a year).
Alternatively, you can try upgrading the kernel via Sabayon's graphical application manager, called Rigo Application Browser. You can use Rigo to search for packages, install and remove individual applications, update the system and perform various advanced tasks, such as managing software repositories. Rigo is easy to use and does the job, although it does have a few rough edges. The application didn't prompt me for the root password when I applied updates; buttons were not always clickable and "extremely important" notices Rigo wanted me to review could not always be viewed. I found Rigo pleasant to use though, and toward the end of my trial I even managed to use it to install version 5.0.x of the Linux Sabayon kernel (which, according to Rigo, has already been installed more than half a million times).
Sabayon 19.03 -- Sabayon running Linux kernel 5.0.5
(full image size: 573kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
As an aside, one thing I like about Rigo is the informal language used in the application. The "extremely" important notices I just mentioned can be dismissed by clicking on a "Stop annoying me" button and when you start updates via Rigo the application will tell you to "go make some coffee" (acknowledging the fact that package upgrades are rather slow).
Sabayon 19.03 -- Extremely important notices from the repositories
(full image size: 113kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I ran Sabayon for about three weeks and during this time I got about 100 updates. In the first week there were just a handful of minor updates and about ten days later there was a much larger batch of 70 updates. Among the latter updates was GNOME Shell itself - it jumped two major versions, to 3.30.2. The only issue I noticed after the second batch of updates was that I got a notification about the VirtualBox kernel service not running every time I logged into the GNOME desktop. I'm not sure if the VirtualBox kernel service ought to be running and the system remained fully functional.
The Fluxbox experience
There really isn't much I can write about using Sabayon's GNOME desktop for everyday tasks. Both the 3.26 and 3.30 versions were almost vanilla GNOME installs and everything worked as it should. As the GNOME versions aren't new and shiny either there also isn't much point in talking about the desktop environment's features. I therefore decided to instead explore Sabayon's Fluxbox edition.
The Fluxbox ISO is 1.6GB in size and described on Sabayon's download page as "Minimal, for hackers". As with the GNOME edition, the default option is to launch a live environment but alas, that didn't work - the boot process stalled after the Sabayon logo appeared on the screen. I could view the boot messages by hitting the Esc key, which revealed that the system was waiting for jobs to finish. I let the system try to sort itself out for about seven minutes before I rebooted the laptop, only to get the same result again. The ISO's MD5 checksum checked out and the issue wasn't a dodgy USB pen - I got the same result when I booted the ISO image in GNOME Boxes.
Luckily, the option to install Sabayon from the boot menu did work. Against my better judgment I did select the option to encrypt the hard drive, just to check if the install would again fail. I indeed encountered exactly the same error as before and this time I had to use fdisk to remove my partitions before I could run the installer again. Fluxbox installed correctly when I opted to not encrypt the hard drive.
The duplicate login sessions I had noticed in the GNOME edition were also present in Fluxbox. On the login screen I got the choice of four sessions: Default, Fluxbox, XSession and Fluxbox (again). Fluxbox itself is, as minimal window managers go, rather sparse. You get the same Cubist wallpaper, a single task bar that stretches two thirds of the bottom of the screen and you can launch an application menu by right-clicking on the desktop.
The Fluxbox edition comes with hardly any pre-installed software. The applications menu lists xterm and Firefox as the only graphical applications and, of the two, Firefox isn't actually installed. Of course, Fluxbox users tend to prefer it that way; the window manager is highly configurable and can be customised to your heart's content.
Sabayon 19.03 -- Installing Firefox (and having to accept another license)
(full image size: 838kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Fluxbox worked fine when I could get to the login screen. Unfortunately, every other time I booted my laptop I would only get to a blinking cursor on a black screen. The boot error may be related to a dependency issue: when I did the check for missing dependencies Equo reported that sysvinit-2.86-r6 was needed by openrc-0.38.3 but that it couldn't install the former package. Whatever the cause of the issue was, it made using Fluxbox infeasible.
Conclusions
Sabayon's claim that it is a "beginner-friendly" distro that is "bleeding edge" and "stable and reliable" is a bit of a stretch. I doubt "beginners" will comprehend the instructions for what to do after installing Sabayon - and that is assuming inexperienced users will find the information in the first place. Similarly, the systemd and GNOME versions are rather old for a distro that claims to be "bleeding edge". That said, I did find Sabayon's GNOME edition to be stable and reliable, bar a few minor issues (such as the notification about the VirtualBox kernel service not running).
I don't think it is entirely fair to ask if Sabayon lives up to the bold marketing slogans on its home page. Personally, I see Sabayon as a friendly and interesting distro for tinkerers and distro-hoppers, and a very good one at that. I should also mention that, in general, Sabayon's use of language is refreshingly informal; both the graphical Rigo package manager and the wiki put a smile on my face more than once. Even Equo has some jokes built in - the command equo moo prints an ASCII cow that says "Entromoooo!".
Sabayon does still has some way to go to become the sophisticated operating system it wants to be. With 19.03 the distro switched from the Anaconda to the Calamares installer which, to my mind at least, is a good decision. However, contrary to what is claimed in the release notes, the disk encryption issue has not been resolved yet and the wiki still talks about how to find your way through the Anaconda installer. Work on the new wiki announced in the release notes seems to be at a very early stage.
I also couldn't fail to notice that Sabayon's forums are rather quiet. Lively forums don't necessarily equate to a thriving community, but the overall feeling I got is that Sabayon could do with a bit more momentum. That shouldn't discourage you from giving Sabayon a try though. On the contrary, if you are a Linux-loving tinkerer then Sabayon might be the distro for you.
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Hardware used for this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a Lenovo Thinkpad X220 with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Core i3-2520M, 2.5GHz
- Memory: 8GB of RAM
- Wireless network adaptor: Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6205
- Wired network adaptor: Intel 82579M
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Visitor supplied rating
Sabayon has a visitor supplied average rating of: 5/10 from 1 review(s).
Have you used Sabayon? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Clear Linux outlines features for developers, Red Hat explains MDS flaws, developers patch Linux networking vulnerability
Clear Linux is a distribution which is often highly regarded for its performance, typically winning benchmark tests against other, more general purpose, distributions. Clear Linux is not just a testing ground for optimizations though, the project is also hoping to attract developers with rolling release desktop offerings and cutting edge versions of the GNU Compiler Collection. A post on the distribution's blog reports: "For a distro looking to serve developers who pump out optimized code, being on the latest compiler is an absolute necessity. We're currently running GCC9 and are poised to move to GCC10 as soon as it becomes available. The Clear Linux OS has always been very aggressive with applying compiler flags to optimize builds and we look forward to continuing this trend. We'll also continue with our multiple-build approach so that those who aren't flying with Intel Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (Intel AVX-512) optimizations, are still getting bang for their Intel AVX2 buck. Stays in lockstep with upstream. Clear Linux OS's rolling release allows us to ensure that security mitigations that are available are included in the next release without any unreasonable delay."
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Tech blogs and security mailing lists have been abuzz this past week with discussions regarding a series of security flaws called Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS). These vulnerabilities could be used by a local attacker or process to read privileged data from the CPU cache. The issues appear to affect multiple processors and operating systems. Distributions have already begun publishing updates to address the flaws. The Red Hat website offers details on the MDS issue: "Four new microprocessor flaws have been discovered, the most severe of which is rated by Red Hat Product Security as having an Important impact. These flaws, if exploited by an attacker with local shell access to a system, could allow data in the CPU's cache to be exposed to unauthorized processes. While difficult to execute, a skilled attacker could use these flaws to read memory from a virtual or containerized instance, or the underlying host system..."
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Bleeping Computer has published a story covering a vulnerability in the Linux kernel's networking code which may be exploitable. The vulnerability affects Linux kernels prior to version 5.0.8 and has captured attention because it may be remotely exploitable on systems where services are using RDS sockets. Kernel developers have already published a patch and fixed the issue in versions of Linux newer than 5.0.8.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Overview of options for running open Linux distros on mobile devices (2019 edition)
A lot of people are interested in running open source, Linux-based operating systems on their mobile devices, but due to the mobile ecosystem often making use of proprietary drivers and locked devices, it can be difficult to find open source friendly mobile platforms. Here are some of the mobile, Linux-powered options that are available now, or should be available by the end of 2019.
People who wish to start using Linux on their phone right away should probably look at the list of compatible devices on the UBports website. Many of the devices listed can be purchased new, or used at a discount. UBports is the project which took over development of Ubuntu Touch. UBports provides a graphical installer which allows the user to plug their phone into a computer and run the installer to download and copy the necessary files to their smart phone to install UBports. When paired with compatible devices, UBports provides a fully functional mobile experience with calling, texting, mobile data, GPS, wi-fi, hotspots, and an application store.
For people who want more of an application platform than a phone-like communication device there is postmarketOS. The postmarketOS project is based on Alpine Linux and provides software and updates for over one hundred devices. While postmarketOS works with a wide range of hardware, it is still in the alpha stage of development. The platform only runs applications and cannot be used to send or receive voice calls.
Though it is not yet available at the time of writing, many Linux fans will probably be interested in the Librem 5, which should be available later this year. The Librem 5 is a rare device that is specifically designed with free Linux distributions in mind and is intended to provide more privacy and security than other mobile platforms. The Purism team behind the Librem 5 has been selling laptops for a few years now bundled with free software and this will be their first adventure with providing mobile devices. The Librem 5 is expected to ship with the PureOS distribution and a modified version of GNOME as its primary interface. KDE's Plasma Mobile will be available as an alternative user interface option. Originally it was thought the phone should be compatible with UBports too for people who wish to install an alternative operating system, however the UBports team has reported they have yet to receive a development kit to aid in porting their operating system to the Librem 5.
Another Linux smart phone on the horizon is the PinePhone. The PinePhone is expected to become available toward the end of 2019 and will likely run software provided by UBports when it launches. The platform strives to be open and, in theory, should be able to run other mobile-oriented flavours of Linux and BSD, such as Purism's PureOS mentioned above.
I feel there are two more projects which deserve honourable mentions, even though they do not quite fit the criteria of providing full, open, traditional Linux distributions. LineageOS is a free and open source operating system based on Android. LineageOS is a libre version of Android/Linux rather than a member of the GNU/Linux and Busybox/Linux families of distributions mentioned above and runs on a large number of devices. Some manual work will be required to install the provided images on a supported phone or tablet. Another Linux-based platform is Sailfish OS which has received a lot of praise for its level of polish. However, Sailfish combines open and proprietary licenses, making it less free than the platforms listed above. Availability is also somewhat limited and I am not able to purchase a copy as Sailfish blocks connections to its store from some countries.
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Additional tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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| Released Last Week |
Emmabuntus DE2-1.04
Emmabuntüs is a desktop Linux distribution with editions based Xubuntu and Debian's Stable branch. It strives to be beginner-friendly and reasonably light on resources so that it can be used on older computers. The project has published an update to its Debian-based branch, Emmabuntus Debian Edition 2-1.04, which is based on Debian 9.9. "This update of our distribution is taking over the improvements we implemented in our recent Emmabuntüs DE 3 beta release, based on Debian 10 Buster, and brings an improvement in the size of the ISO by the rationalization of the current software, and the removal of unsupported languages. In addition, it supports pkexec instead of gksu in all our post-installation and customization scripts. We hope that this new version will further facilitate the repackaging work made by the various associations using Emmabuntüs, and the task of our friends JerryClan from France and Africa." Further details and a list of changes to the default software can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
ArcoLinux 19.05.2
ArcoLinux is an Arch-based distribution which is available in three main branches, which provide a range of complete solutions, minimal editions designed to be customized by the user, and community flavours. The ArcoLinux project has published a new update, version 19.05.2, that adds some short-cuts and trims out features that were causing problems. "Redshift was included in the last ISO. During testing Redshift gave no issues. After the launch some of our users reported it was NOT working. Since reports were partially negative, we have decided not to include it on the ISO. You can install in later, if you want to have it. Software that gives our users frustrations is out as a rule of thumb. SUPER + Q: From the development of Qtile we have learned to use the keyboard shortcut super + q to close a window. We were so used to this shortcut that we have implemented it also in: Xfce, Openbox, i3, Awesome, bspwm, Qtile, xmonad." Further details and screenshots can be found in the project's release announcement.
IPFire 2.23 Core 131
Michael Tremer has announced the release of IPFire 2.23, a major update of the project's specialist Linux distribution for firewalls. The new version brings a brand-new intrusion detection system: "Finally, we are releasing another big release of IPFire. In IPFire 2.23 Core Update 131, we are rolling out our new Intrusion Prevention System (IPS). On top of that, this update also contains a number of other bug fixes and enhancements. We are finally shipping our recently announced IPS - making all of your networks more secure by deeply inspecting packets and trying to identify threats. This new system has many advantages over the old one in terms of performance, security and it simply put - more modern. We have put together some documentation on how to set up the IPS, what rulesets are supported and what hardware resources you will need. Your settings will automatically be converted if you are using the existing Intrusion Detection System (IDS) and replicated with the new IPS." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information.
Peppermint OS 10
Peppermint OS is a lightweight, desktop distribution based on packages from Ubuntu which merges components of the Xfce and LXDE desktop environments. Peppermint OS also tries to integrate web-based applications into the desktop, using site-specific browsers, and local programs. The project's latest version, Peppermint OS 10, is built from Ubuntu 18.04 LTS packages and features improved hardware support. It also includes an updated copy of Ice for managing web-app short-cuts. "Peppermint 10 main changes: Kernel 4.18.0-18 which is now on the rolling HWE-18.04 track so will eventually roll onto the 5.xx kernel automatically as the HWE is updated upstream. Updated X.Org stack, again via the rolling HWE-18.04 track. Proprietary NVIDIA graphics drivers now installed automatically if 'Install third party drivers/software' is selected as part of the installation routine, this includes automatic configuration of NVIDIA Optimus setups up to the NVIDIA-390 drivers. If you intend to install the later 396/410/415/418/430 drivers from the 'Proprietary GPU Drivers' PPA it would probably be best not to select this option during install and add them manually post-install. Ice (6.0.2) - Ice now has support for isolated profiles for Chromium, Chrome, and Vivaldi SSB's (Firefox SSB's are always isolated). Firefox SSB's now also have four bookmarks included by default making the addition of addons and other configuration changes on a per-SSB basis easier. There are also other under the hood changes, such as ICE will now rebuild your SSB profiles should you accidentally delete their directories." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
Peppermint OS 10 -- The default desktop
(full image size: 922kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Robolinux 10.5
Robolinux is a user-friendly and desktop operating system based on the latest long term support release of Ubuntu. The project's latest release of Robolinux 10.5 which includes many security fixes, including a patch for the Zombieland CPU vulnerability and an updated kernel. The project's release announcement reports: "The Robolinux 10 Series Cinnamon, MATE 3D, Xfce, LXDE and GNOME 64-bit Raptor versions have been upgraded with new kernels, hardware drivers, a new installer version and over five hundred fifty security and application updates. We had to rebuild the Cinnamon version from scratch which reduced the ISO and RAM significantly. We also patched the latest Intel chip vulnerability called Zombieland in all five versions of our Robolinux 10 series. All current Robolinux 10.4 users can upgrade to version 10.5 in just one click by using the built in Robolinux Auto Upgrade button in the main menu. Cinnamon Users will need to manually update their extensions."
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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: 1,418
- Total data uploaded: 25.5TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll |
Do you run a GNU/Linux distribution on a mobile device?
In our Tips and Tricks column we talked about mobile platforms which are currently available (or coming soon) that run GNU/Linux or Busybox/Linux operating systems. There are a few options available now and a couple more reportedly coming later in 2019. We would like to know how many of our readers currently use, or plan to use, one of these platforms that use a non-Android Linux distribution.
You can see the results of our previous poll on which kernel versions our readers are running in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Do you run a GNU/Linux distribution on a mobile device?
| I have run a GNU/Linux distro in the past: | 72 (6%) |
| I have run a Busybox/Linux distro in the past: | 33 (3%) |
| I currently run a GNU/Linux distro: | 97 (8%) |
| I currently run a Busybox/Linux distro: | 19 (2%) |
| I plan to run a GNU/Linux distro: | 320 (26%) |
| I plan to run a Busybox/Linux distro: | 58 (5%) |
| I do not plan to run either of these on a mobile device: | 616 (51%) |
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| DistroWatch.com News |
DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 27 May 2019. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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| Archives |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
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| Random Distribution | 
SuperGamer
SuperGamer is a live DVD currently based on Ubuntu (previously it was based on VectorLinux), intended to showcase gaming on Linux. The distribution is optimised for a gaming computer environment, with some tweaks to help speed up running from the live DVD. While older version included some open-source and demo games, the newest release does not; however, Steam, GOG Games and The Humble Bundle can be easily installed.
Status: Dormant
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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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