 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 826, 5 August 2019 |
Welcome to this year's 31st issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Each distribution offers its own customized style by mixing themes, desktop environments, applications and tools together to create a unique experience. This often leads people to wonder which distribution they should run to get the best possible experience with a given desktop or set of tools. In this week's Questions and Answers column we talk about matching desktop environments to flagship distributions that put effort into providing a polished experience. Let us know what you think of customized desktop environments in our Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about the hardware for the Librem 5 privacy-focused smart phone being finalized, along with driver issues affecting some Project Trident users. We also discuss new features coming to future versions of Manjaro Linux and NetBSD. First though we take quick looks at three Linux distributions on our waiting list. These projects each offer an unusual set of features or experiences and we explore what these projects offer in our Feature Story. This week we are pleased to welcome two new distributions, EndeavourOS and EuroLinux, to our database. Plus we share the new releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Resilient Linux, PrimeOS and BlueLight
- News: Librem 5 hardware finalized, Manjaro introduces new package manager, Trident warns of video driver issue, NetBSD reveals 9.0 features
- Questions and answers: Flagship distributions for desktop environments
- Released last week: Linux Mint 19.2, SparkyLinux 2019.08, Pardus 19.0
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, Arch, Container, HardenedBSD, Linux Mint, KDE neon, Pardus, SmartOS, SparkyLinux, Volumio
- Upcoming releases: Ubuntu 18.04.3
- Opinion poll: Custom desktop versus vanilla desktop
- New additions: EndeavourOS, EuroLinux
- New distributions: AlienPupOS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (18MB) and MP3 (13MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Exploring the waiting list
Most of the time we hold off on reviewing young distributions until they have matured enough, and been active long enough, to migrate from the DistroWatch waiting list to the database of tracked projects. However, putting off talking about projects until they reach a certain age, level of infrastructure, or version number means our readers miss out on hearing about some really interesting concepts.
This week I decided to explore three projects on the waiting list which, while not necessarily ready for mainstream use, present neat ideas which certainly sound promising, or at least unusual.
* * * * *
Resilient Linux 1.0
The first project on my experimental list is Resilient Linux. Resilient is based on Debian 9 "Stretch" and is designed to run with the operating system on a read-only partition. A second partition, referred to as the persistence partition, includes system updates and user data. This arrangement offers a few benefits. One is that we can backup the entire system by taking a snapshot or archive of the persistence partition. Another is that attackers cannot directly corrupt or compromise the main operating system partition since they cannot write to it. Finally, it should be very easy to restore or transfer an existing system by installing Resilient and then copying the persistence partition to the new operating system.
The Resilient website reports that the persistence partition can be encrypted for additional security and the distribution is available in Desktop and Server editions. At the moment, Resilient is available for 64-bit computers (x86_64) only. The distribution's Desktop edition is available as a 3.2GB Zip file, which unpacks to a 4.3GB image file.
I tried booting off the image file and, each time, the system began to boot and then dropped me to an initramfs prompt. After trying a few different boot options, I had to admit defeat. While Resilient is not working for me yet, I think the idea of a read-only operating system partition makes sense. It sounds similar to openSUSE's Transactional Server or Fedora's Silverblue operating system, but with a Debian base. I am hoping the next release runs for me so I can give this concept a try.
* * * * *
PrimeOS 0.4.5
The next distribution on my list is PrimeOS, which provides an implementation of Android that runs on x86 personal computers. This allows users to run Android and its many applications on a desktop or laptop computer.
PrimeOS is presented in three editions: Mainline (for new computers), Standard (for most 64-bit computers), and Classic (for 32-bit computers). I tried downloading the Standard edition which is a 1GB download, and the Classic edition which is 879MB.
The first time I tried to download PrimeOS the download was slow and eventually failed due to a dropped connection. When I went back to the project's website to try another mirror I was told no mirrors (including the one I had just used) were available. I then tried the Classic option which did present me with mirrors. The Classic download started quickly, but stopped downloading at 16%. Returning again, later, to the project's download page failed to provide me with working mirrors.
In short, PrimeOS may be a useful operating system (it sounds a lot like Android-x86), however after several tries I was unable to get my hands on a copy to actually give it a spin.
* * * * *
BlueLight 0.2.2 Alpha
The final experimental distribution on my to-try list this week was BlueLight. The project's website does not tell us much about this unusual Linux distribution, other than it is related to another project called OS.js:
BlueLight, formerly called OS.js Linux, is a lightweight web-based Linux distro powered by OS.js. It uses the power of Electron to run a cloud based operating system, OS.js, to provide the user with a more web-based experience.
The BlueLight ISO file is 825MB in size. Booting from the media brings up a graphical interface with a blue theme. A window soon pops-up and asks us to select our language from a list. We are then asked to pick our time zone from a list that uses white text on a white background, meaning we need to move the mouse over each entry to highlight it in order to see what it says.
We then pick a disk to house BlueLight's installation and the system copies files from its media. The installer finishes and drops us at a live, minimal desktop environment. Here I ran into an odd problem as I could find no way to reboot or shutdown the system. The application menu is mostly empty and the logout option simply re-launches the desktop and starts the installer again.
I eventually forced a hard poweroff and restarted the computer. At this point BlueLight failed to boot, reporting no system disk could be found. I wondered if I might have skipped an installation step and checked the project's website. At the time of writing there is no documentation on installing the distribution and the link to the project's wiki is broken. The project's blog is also off-line at the time of writing, making me wonder if the project may be abandoned.
For the moment at least, as curious as I was to see what a web-focused operating system might offer, it looks like I will have to wait to find out.
* * * * *
Each other these projects has been on our waiting list a short while and still have plenty of time to work out bugs and become more polished. For now, I think they each offer intriguing ideas, the implementations just need time to mature before they are ready to be explored further.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Librem 5 hardware finalized, Manjaro introduces new package manager, Trident warns of video driver issue, NetBSD reveals 9.0 features
The Librem 5 is a smart phone being designed to run GNU/Linux distributions, such as PureOS, and run with 100% free and open source software. The phone's hardware design has been finalized and Purism, the organization behind the phone, hopes to start shipping units to backers later this year. Details on the phone's hardware and hardware switches for protecting privacy can be found in this blog post.
* * * * *
The Manjaro Linux team has announced a few new tools coming to future versions of their rolling release distribution. The first is fpakman, a graphical application for handling Flatpak and Snap packages. "Some might notice that since the Snapcraft Summit a lot of package changes went into Manjaro and our available RCs. Also we didn't yet announce 18.1.0-rc6 officially yet. Xfce, GNOME and KDE editions will come with fpakman, so managing Snaps and Flatpaks is easy. This way everybody can easily access the Snap store by a click and don't have to hassle to get Snaps enabled. This enables us to ship even more proprietary software, which we couldn't before." Also on the topic of proprietary software, Manjaro has partnered with Softmaker to ship the FreeOffice productivity suite by default. FreeOffice claims to have a high degree of compatibility with Microsoft Office and is free to use, though some Manjaro users have expressed concern as FreeOffice is proprietary software. The Manjaro team has responded that they will make installing FreeOffice (or another suite) an option in the distribution's installer.
* * * * *
The developers of Project Trident are reporting that, due to some issues with the upstream FreeBSD vesa video driver, Project Trident may not start properly on computers booting in legacy BIOS mode. "FreeBSD has broken their vesa driver which is required for legacy boot systems in the Trident installer. If you have the option, you will need to enable booting via EFI or UEFI in order to go through the graphical installer. If you already have an installed Trident system with legacy boot and which currently uses an NVIDIA or AMD graphics driver, it is still safe to upgrade your system to this release (only the vesa driver is currently broken, which is used for no-GPU and some Intel-GPU systems). You can run about from a terminal to see which GPU driver your system is currently using." Details on the FreeBSD driver issue can be found in this problem report.
* * * * *
The NetBSD project has published some highlights of the operating system's upcoming 9.0 release. The NetBSD developers are working to get 32-bit ARM applications running on 64-bit ARM hardware, updating ZFS support, and introducing a number of security and memory leak detection tools. The system installer will now work with GPT UEFI hardware configurations. A complete overview of the features people can expect to see in NetBSD 9.0 are listed in the project's blog post.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Flagship distributions for desktop environments
Looking-for-the-best-examples asks: I've tried out KDE neon recently and was wondering if other desktops, besides KDE, have flagship distros that really show off how the desktop is meant to look?
DistroWatch answers: I would say that there are several distributions which focus on, or showcase, upstream desktop environments. Though many of them do not have the same direct (or official) relationship KDE neon has with the KDE Plasma desktop. Three other official distribution/desktop matches are: deepin which runs the Deepin desktop, older versions of Ubuntu running Unity, and Linux Mint which is home to the Cinnamon desktop. Also, I think Project Trident (which is a flavour of BSD, not a Linux distribution) could probably be considered the official platform for the Lumina desktop environment.
While most other desktops do not necessarily have an official distro showcasing them, I think an argument could be made for Fedora being a good platform to show off GNOME. Fedora and GNOME are both sponsored by Red Hat and Fedora tends to ship the latest stable upstream GNOME packages with very little modification. One might also argue that Ubuntu MATE probably offers the latest MATE desktop set up in a way that is ideal for showing off the desktop's features in a friendly way.
Off the top of my head, I don't think Xfce, LXDE, and LXQt have official connections to any Linux distributions, but if you are curious to try them you may want to look at Xubuntu and Lubuntu as both distributions are fairly easy to set up and strive to offer a solid desktop experience. Likewise, I don't think Enlightenment has official ties to any distribution, but Bodhi Linux is well regarded as offering a polished Enlightenment experience. I believe Q4OS is one of the few distributions still shipping with the Trinity desktop and so it becomes a showcase for Trinity by default.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Linux Mint 19.2
The Linux Mint team has published an update to the distribution's 19.x series. The new version, Linux Mint 19.2, is based on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, offering five years of support. The new update offers several user interface improvements. For instance, it is now possible to configure the width overlay scrollbars, and programs with the same name show up with added descriptions in the application menu so that users can tell X-Apps from GNOME programs and Flatpaks from Deb packages. "The application menu is faster and it now identifies and distinguishes duplicates. If two applications have the same name, the menu will show more information about them. In your application menu, Xed is the 'Text Editor'. If you install Gedit, you no longer end up with two 'Text Editor' entries. Instead, you'll see 'Text Editor (Xed)' and 'Text Editor (Gedit)'. The same goes for Flatpaks, if you install the Flatpak of an application you already have, the menu will distinguish between the two to let you know which one is the one from the repositories and which one is the Flatpak. Scrollbar settings: If you don't like overlay scrollbars or if you find them too thin, you can now configure the way they look in the System Settings." Further details can be found in the project's release announcements for each edition (Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce).
SparkyLinux 2019.08
The SparkyLinux team have published the first new release of the project's semi-rolling branch, which is based on Debian Testing, also known as "Bullseye". The new snapshot, SparkyLinux 2019.08, ships with updated kernels, new compiler options and is available in LXQt, Xfce and two minimal editions. "There are new live/install media of SparkyLinux 2019.08 'Po Tolo' available to download. This is the 1st snapshot of the new (semi-)rolling line, which is based on the testing branch of Debian 'Bullseye'. Changes: system updated from Debian Testing 'Bullseye' repos as of August 1, 2019; added GCC 9 (GCC 8 is still the default one); new Sparky6 theme; new Tela icon set; refreshed desktop look; SDDM instead of LightDM (LXQt edition); Linux kernel 4.19.37 (5.1.21 EOL, 5.2.5 and 5.3-rc2 available at Sparky unstable repos). As I mentioned before, Sparky of the rolling line is available to amd64/x86_64 machines only. Sparky rolling 32-bit is fully supported so if you have it, simply keep it up to date." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
SparkyLinux 2019.08 -- Running the LXQt desktop
(full image size: 178kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Pardus 19.0
Pardus is a GNU/Linux distribution jointly developed by the Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK) and National Academic Network and Information Centre (ULAKBİM). The distribution is built on Debian, with the latest version, Pardus 19.0, being based on Debian 10. The project's release announcement is available in Turkish and an English translation reads: "The Pardus operating system comes with Linux kernel 4.19 to keep your hardware is running smoothly and with high performance. See the positive impact of power management on laptops on battery life thanks to integration with Pardus, as well as software such as TLP. Pardus-specific improvements and innovations in the Debian-based package management system are more convenient and secure thanks to weekly updates via package repositories. Pardus has made improvements and has been compiled from source code and rebuilt packages." Pardus 19.0 comes in Xfce, GNOME and Server editions.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 1,532
- Total data uploaded: 27.0TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Custom desktop versus vanilla desktop
Some Linux distributions customize their desktop environments, adding tweaks, short-cuts and special layouts to present the user with a special look and feel. Other distributions present a vanilla desktop experience, packaging the desktop with the defaults its developers chose. Do you prefer it when distributions leave desktops in their default, upstream state, or do you like to have a custom desktop experience? Let us know your favourite desktop and distro combination in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on GNU/Linux smart phones in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Custom desktop versus vanilla desktop
| I prefer a custom desktop: | 503 (27%) |
| I prefer a vanilla desktop: | 656 (35%) |
| It depends on the distro/desktop combination: | 590 (31%) |
| No preference: | 127 (7%) |
|
|
| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
New projects added to database
EndeavourOS
EndeavourOS is a rolling release Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. The project aims to be a spiritual successor to Antergos - providing an easy setup and pre-configured desktop environment on an Arch base. EndeavourOS uses the Xfce desktop by default and is installed by the Calamares graphical system installer.
EndeavourOS 2019.07.15 -- Exploring the live desktop
(full image size: 271kB, resolution: 1280x1024 pixels)
EuroLinux
EuroLinux is an enterprise-class Linux distribution made and supported by the EuroLinux company, built mostly from code of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The origin of the system ensures compatibility with most popular enterprise Linux distributions including Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Oracle Linux, and CentOS. While primarily geared toward server workloads, EuroLinux can also be used for desktop computing or any environment where long-term stability and support are demanded.
EuroLinux 7.6 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 1.2MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- AlienPupOS. AlienPupOS is a Puppy Linux-based distribution which ships with WINE and BOINC on the live media. The distribution is intended for use running BOINC computations on older hardware.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 12 August 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 2, value: US$21.36) |
|
|
|
 bc1qtede6f7adcce4kjpgx0e5j68wwgtdxrek2qvc4  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Linux Foundation Training |
|
|
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Shells.com |
Your own personal Linux computer in the cloud, available on any device. Supported operating systems include Android, Debian, Fedora, KDE neon, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro and Ubuntu, ready in minutes.
Starting at US$4.95 per month, 7-day money-back guarantee
|
| Random Distribution | 
IPCop Firewall
IPCop Linux was a complete Linux Distribution whose sole purpose was to protect the networks it was installed on. After seeing the direction certain Linux Distributions were heading in, a group of dissatisfied users/developers decided that there was little reason for the idea of a GPL Linux Firewall Distribution of such potential to be, simply, extinguished. By implementing existing technology, outstanding new technology and secure programming practices IPCop was the Linux Distribution for those wanting to keep their computers/networks safe. The IPCop Linux Team was dedicated to doing the very best job possible to keep your systems safe, as you can see on our site. "The Bad Packets Stop Here!"
Status: Discontinued
|
| Tips, Tricks, Q&As | | Questions and answers: Working with encrypted e-mail |
| Tips and tricks: Copying columns of text, organizing files, creating torrents |
| Tips and tricks: What being free, stable and light-weight mean |
| Questions and answers: Selecting an init implementation |
| Tips and tricks: Creating, removing, modifying, and ignoring aliases |
| Tips and tricks: Ubuntu's Snappy package manager |
| Questions and answers: Worried about spyware |
| Tips and tricks: Keep terminal programs running, using the at command, reverse OpenSSH connections |
| Questions and answers: Dealing with Btrfs snapshots |
| Questions and answers: All about wireless |
| More Tips & Tricks and Questions & Answers |
| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
