 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 863, 27 April 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 17th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the big events in the Linux community this past week was the launch of a new long-term support (LTS) release of Ubuntu. The new Ubuntu 20.04 offers a number of new features for desktop and server users, including experimental ZFS support for people who want advanced filesystem features. The distribution is accompanied by many community editions with alternative desktop flavours and we share details on each of these below. First though we explore a small, Debian-based project called Star. The Star distribution is quite minimal and Bernhard Hoffmann takes this project for a spin and reports on his findings. In our News section we talk about Arch Linux getting a new tool to verify the integrity of package builds and DragonFly BSD discussing removing Google API keys from the Chromium package. We are also happy to report the Fedora distribution will soon begin shipping on Lenovo laptops. Plus we share tips on finding Linux distributions with specific features in our Questions and Answers column. One question we frequently get is how to locate distributions that will run on older, 32-bit computers. We would like to know how many of you still run older members of the 32-bit CPU family in our Opinion Poll. This week we added a new project, KISS, to our database and the details on this unusual project are included below. Plus we are pleased to list the releases of the past week and link to the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Star 2.1.0
- News: DragonFly BSD discusses removing Google API keys from Chromium, Arch Linux provides package rebuilder, Fedora shipping on Lenovo laptops
- Questions and answers: Looking for specific distributions
- Released last week: Ubuntu 20.04, Manjaro Linux 20.0, NixOS 20.03
- Torrent corner: Absolute, Alpine, FuryBSD, IPFire, Manjaro, Nitrux, NixOS, Scientific, Ubuntu
- Upcoming releases: Fedora 32
- Opinion poll: Running an older CPU than i686
- New additions: KISS
- New distributions: DXT2
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (17MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Bernhard Hoffmann) |
Star 2.1.0
The Star Linux distribution has been around for years in various guises and I resolved to look at it in a bit more depth in the current quest to look at more Devuan-derived distributions as alternatives to Debian in my search for init freedom, rather than just running it for a minute in VirtualBox like I have with its predecessors. Star is done by the developers of CROWZ, formerly Zephyr Linux, which seems mostly identical in aim, setup and flavours of window managers provided.
Both projects provide 32-bit and 64-bit Intel/AMD architecture builds and are hosted on Sourceforge and both are built on the currently stable version of Devuan GNU+Linux, at the moment 2.1 "ASCII".
For the purposes of this test I downloaded the JWM, i3 and Xfce 64-bit editions of Star Linux 2.1 (code name "Kirk") from the Files section of the distribution's website where the checksums of the ISO images can also be found to check integrity if one is so inclined. Openbox, Fluxbox and net-install images are also available. They come in at about 480-518MB in size, with the net-install image listed as 320MB. 32-bit images optimized for i686 are only available with JWM or as a net-install option. Interestingly, the i3 flavour with only a bare window manager was the largest at 518MB, while the Xfce flavor came in at 504MB and JWM at 500MB. Backports repositories are enabled by default.
It is clear almost immediately that looks are not what the makers are overly concerned with. The distribution's representative icon reminds me of the negative of a very simple, bad tattoo.
In an e-mail exchange, Zephdev informed me that Ozi Traveller is the lead developer for Star, whereas CROWZ is Zeph's project. Zeph explains the rationale behind both projects:
We both embrace the same ideas and structure our distributions similar right down to no wallpaper. Actually any bloat or unneeded apps are simply not installed in the image build. Most Linux users know what they want or need so installing software other than what is initially installed is the minimum to get the new user up and running. Both distributions use a similar welcome-screen that populates on the first run or when they simply reenter in a terminal for more applications.
Ozi expanded on this by providing a bit of background history.
Star was born from CrunchBang Linux and a parting comment by Corenominal (Philip Newborough), where he described his thoughts on the next version, if he were to build one. I felt boiled down to "more minimal, and only using stable Debian packages".
I intentionally, only have a few applications, Star is meant to be customised by the user. I don't know what the user will want, and everyone is different. Star is a starting point! Customise it to your own liking!
Star Linux is a bit like CrunchBang with its simple, black presentation, only without the additional pipe-menus and scripts. In a way a stripped down CrunchBang. If that appeals to you, read on.
Star 2.1.0 -- The GRUB boot loader
(full image size: 14kB, resolution: 640x480 pixels)
As usual, the distribution was first tested in VirtualBox and then as a bare metal install. Booting up the GRUB2 screen is nothing to write home about, with the usual entries. And it is mostly black.
Live session and installation
Anyways, from here we can opt to boot into live mode, extract and copy to memory first, start a text based installer or the graphical installer. Star is using a Devuan base and with that the old Debian installer. Under advanced options one can, for example, provide a preseeded configuration to automate larger installs. Other entries are Rescue Mode and Expert Install which gives a few more options to customize language and keyboard input separately, and to install accessibility features for blind and visually impaired users. Here one can also change the priority of questions asked by the installer and depth of system configuration with debconf. 99.9% of users shouldn't need this and should only ever have to select Install or Graphical Install from the main menu. In fact, in the case of Star, the questions were virtually identical.
Installation is mostly a point and click thing encompassing the usual steps, selecting the device to install on, timezone, root password, making up a username and choosing where to install the boot loader. Most people will want to go with the main hard drive identified and with the MBR for the boot loader or skip it altogether if booting will be handled by another operating system's boot loader. If going for auto-install instead of manual partitioning this setup process can be very streamlined indeed.
Star 2.1.0 -- The login page
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In VirtualBox the initial boot screen is a lowly 640x480 resolution but we get full mouse integration. One thing that seemed annoying in the beginning was that Star always asked prior to going into live mode what resolution and color depth it should adopt. You are expected to select from a list of supported resolutions and punch in the code. While this seemed old-fashioned at first, it allowed me to set a larger screen size as there is no option to change screen resolution in the live session.
Once rebooted, Star identified simply as Devuan, reinforcing that these custom installs are probably better thought of as modifications of the parent OS than as independent distributions and which are offering alternative flavours with their images as a starting point that the original distribution does not provide. These are a variety of window managers, and also firmware that is included.
The login screen again is predictably black. This may not be to everybody's taste but at least prompting for a username is good security practice. Still though, the login theming should be changed, even if it's going to be all black or, preferably, something slightly more hackerish would suit this modification well.
Desktop and applications - JWM
At first I tested the JWM edition. The desktop is presented with the panel at the top and the Conky system monitor at the bottom. As is common, we get the menu button on the left hand side of the panel, followed by quick launcher shortcuts for the terminal, the PCManFM file manager, the MPV video player and a browser. I haven't had good experiences with MPV as it seems very picky about when to work but applications can be switched out.
Star 2.1.0 -- The JWM environment
(full image size: 18kB, resolution: 1440x900 pixels)
Interestingly, not Firefox or something light like Midori has been chosen but Web, the web browser for the GNOME desktop (what I believe used to be the Epiphany browser). Web actually starts up really fast, by default it loads a pre-set page file with helpful links to the forum of related projects, parent distributions and other projects like BunsenLabs Linux.
Star 2.1.0 -- Running the Web browser on JWM
(full image size: 86kB, resolution: 1440x900 pixels)
Further to the right we find the window list of open applications and a system tray with virtual desktop switcher, network applet and a clock.
At the bottom of the screen we find the usual information for monitoring a running system, i.e. kernel version, CPU usage, RAM usage and network and battery monitors. From the looks of it you couldn't tell if this is JWM, Xfce or Openbox.
Left- or right-clicking on the desktop brings up the application menu which again, by design, appears very much like the menu in Openbox. Aspects of window manager behaviour and the menu can be changed and edited in the JWM menu under Settings in the main menu. If you have ever edited Openbox or Fluxbox settings and menus via their config files you will feel right at home here. There's also a nicely commented autostart file, in case one is going to install Wicd, or Nitrogen to manage backgrounds, all we have to do is to uncomment the respective entries.
Star 2.1.0 -- Browsing the JWM menu
(full image size: 55kB, resolution: 1440x900 pixels)
The applications menu also includes LXappearance to change style and theming once you have installed additional ones as Star only comes with their default theme. True to the one application per task lean and mean philosophy there are only a couple of applications. It's enough to get you started but don't expect heavy packages like LibreOffice to be on board. In addition to the already mentioned programs, under Accessories we get a basic calculator, the Mousepad text editor, Xarchiver and Xterm; under Graphics the Mirage picture viewer and entries for taking screenshots; an audio mixer under Multimedia; the Xpdf viewer is the only item in the Office section. The best stocked area is the system tools section which includes the Synaptic package manager, a hardware information utility, GParted and the Gdebi package installer, a disk manager, Htop for monitoring and possibly terminating processes, an alternatives selector to change default behaviour and which applications will handle tasks, options to start the terminal and file manager as the root user and to mount and unmount removable media.
A minor oversight in the file manager's Preferences --> Advanced tab is that file-roller is selected to integrate archive management but Xarchiver is installed. This is easily remedied by selecting Xarchiver from the drop-down list.
Xfce
Despite 4.14 being out now for a while Star is still on Xfce 4.12. In essence, the desktop presentation and application choice is trying to preserve a similar experience as in JWM, most visibly borne out by the layout of the panel and the icon theme. The Star Xfce desktop is also using the Epiphany web browser, MPV and alsamixer, Mousepad, Mirage and Xpdf viewer.
Some of the LX applications have been swapped out in favour of those native to the desktop environment, such as the terminal and the file manager.
With Qalculate! a more capable calculator has been included that can also load exchange rates from the net. Apart from this it is the same set of programs. Not quite sure why arandr is included when Xfce has a native module to set screen resolution in the settings manager. Volume management is enabled by default in Thunar and the right click desktop menu has some neat entries to open terminal or file manager with root privileges. A couple of Debian and Devuan wallpapers are included.
Star 2.1.0 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 54kB, resolution: 1440x900 pixels)
i3
I did not dabble much with this. Predictably, the i3 desktop behaves and looks very differently, for example there is no shell menu on mouse clicks and applications are launched in full screen mode.
Shortcuts in the lower left corner help us get started with common commands and with launching the most common applications. I was able to launch the terminal, the PCManFM file manager and the browser which was also GNOME Web/Epiphany. The text editor was Mousepad so by all accounts the Star team appear to stick to the same set of applications if items are not window manager specific. Even the issue with file-roller set to extract archives instead of Xarchiver is present in the file manager.
Star 2.1.0 -- Running the i3 window manager
(full image size: 46kB, resolution: 1440x900 pixels)
The menu in i3 is provided by dmenu which is listed at the top. It is probably the most important shortcut as it allows us to see what is installed and launch any additional programs. I guess to be more productive a good idea would be to define more shortcuts ourselves to get quick access to our most often used programs, in my case to a word processor or the whole office suite. It would have also made sense to have one pointing to Synaptic, but maybe there is a reason not to make it easily accessible.
Boot sequence
Being based on Devuan means Star is using the SysV init system for managing PID 1. One of the arguments against SysV init was that supposedly it was taking too long to start up because it was running scripts serially and not in parallel, resulting in long and delayed boot times.
Star's implementation includes the insserv boot sequence organiser package that updates the order of symlinks to optimize the boot process for the installed packages, and startpar to run processes in parallel.
Firmware and networking
I thought this warrants an extra section as the part of the free and open source software world that is based on Debian GNU/Linux, or in this case Devuan GNU+Linux, can be quite particular about inclusion of proprietary blobs.
All editions have free and non-free firmware, iwlwifi and intel-microcode packages as well as support for Broadcom chips (legacy and current installer) included. Other firmware is on the live image for AMD microcode and graphics, Ralink and Realtek chips. Particularly with inclusion of the latter ones external USB adapters should work without further ado.
All editions of Star use connman and connman-ui to manage networks. This appears to support Ethernet, wireless networking and Bluetooth but I am unsure how and if connman works with VPN connections which could be a deal breaker.
Running it for real
So far we've only been cruising around in VirtualBox and giving an overview over what to expect. And that for a good reason. At first I thought my trusty Flash Voyager USB key was faulty until I tried a new one from SanDisk. I tried several utilities to write the live images as well as dd, no joy, as well as all of the above images. None of them were even recognized in the BIOS so I was unable to configure setup to boot from it.
This is a newer ASUS Vivobook I am trying this on and unfortunately I do not have access to my old Dell. After a while I found out I had to disable CMS and voila, my USB stick was detected.
I used the JWM edition for bare metal testing as it sort of seems to be the default Star edition. We get the prompt for screen resolution again and, once selected, are logged into the desktop in the live session. The connman utility can be a bit tricky to set up and although I was able to connect after supplying the password, due to the UI, it would not be my preferred networking manager.
There were some oddities where the pmount utility did not detect any of my external memory cards or USB to mount and although PCManFM was set to manage volumes it did not detect any either. I was in essence restricted to the live session, unable to mount any internal or external drives, so this would not be a good rescue medium although quite secure as it doesn't allow us to mess with anything.
To be honest, in the end I didn't feel like installing Star, although it's an incredibly light and fast system.
Resources
Going by the JWM edition, CPU usage was low at 1% on idle and no spikes or unexplained activity showing. 110MB of RAM was used immediately after start, 120MB after a few applications had been opened and closed again. 146MB as seen in the screenshot with normal desktop activity and the MPV video player open.
The i3 edition seemed a bit less efficient, needing 146MB straight away after boot. Xfce used 196MB.
Conclusion
At first Star looks a bit bland and barren and only has few basic applications installed, following the one application per task concept. Going by feedback on the project's site and the mini reviews or ratings left on DistroWatch, Star has a lot of satisfied users who clearly don't mind the bare looks and the small size. If anything, that is the attraction. All it needs is a change of wallpaper and some theming if you're so inclined and adding a few choice programs, just like most distributions.
This kind of base can be interesting to the advanced user who wants to build their installation up themselves and know what they want out of it, starting from a small base install but one that has X and a window manager for a functional GUI already available. On top of that it is based on Devuan which presents with a sane and proven init system. I quite like Star and will certainly bear it in mind in the future once there is a new release.
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Hardware used in this review
- ASUS Vivobook, ASUSTeK product: X510UNR
- Motherboard: ASUSTeK X510UNR
- UEFI: American Megatrends v: X510UNR.308 date: 07/24/2018
- CPU: Quad Core model (4x2): Intel Core i7-8550U arch: Kaby Lake
- rev: A L2 cache: 8192 KiB, 400/4000 MHz Core speeds
- RAM: 16GB
- Intel wireless: iwlwifi
- Micron 250 GB SSD + 1 TB Toshiba disk
- SonicMaster Audio
- Integrated Intel i915 Graphics
- NanoEdge Display, maximum resolution: 1920x1080
- ASUSTeK ASUS Battery
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Visitor supplied rating
Star has a visitor supplied average rating of: 7.8/10 from 10 review(s).
Have you used Star? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
DragonFly BSD discusses removing Google API keys from Chromium, Arch Linux provides package rebuilder, Fedora shipping on Lenovo laptops
There are often debates in the open source community around whether a downstream operating system, such as a Linux distribution or one of the BSDs, should ship unmodified upstream software, or customize it to introduce bug fixes or other improvements. Such a discussion is taking place in the DragonFly BSD community with regards to the Chromium web browser. There is some discussion as to whether Chromium should be built and packaged with Google API keys included, or if these should be removed in favour of decoupling the browser from Google. Matthew Dillon wrote recently: "The keys are required by Google to integrate with Google services such as account synchronization and automatic translation. Without the keys, those services will not operate in a fully integrated manner (for example, no auto-translation, but you can still go directly to the translation URL). It's a bit of a mess, we're mulling over what to do. Honestly I'm leaning towards not building Chromium with any API keys at all since doing so marries the browser to Google's integrated services."
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An important part of being able to audit an operating system is confirming that the binary packages running on the system came from their corresponding source code. That is, we need to be able to verify the publicly published source code was used (unaltered) to create the binary packages running on our computer. One of the tools used to do this is reproducible builds, a method of rebuilding source code to verify the resulting package is identical to the package provided in a distribution's repositories. The Arch Linux project now has a tool, called Rebuilder which helps administrators rebuild and verify packages. "We're happy to announce that it's now possible to run independent
rebuilders for Arch Linux in 4 easy(-ish) steps. The rebuilder tracks the package index of Arch Linux and automatically issues rebuilds for new packages." Tips on setting up and using Rebuilder can be found in the Arch wiki.
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Matthew Miller has announced that the Fedora distribution will soon begin shipping on Lenovo laptops. "Today, I'm excited to share some big news with you - Fedora Workstation will be available on Lenovo ThinkPad laptops! Yes, I know, many of us already run a Fedora operating system on a Lenovo system, but this is different. You'll soon be able to get Fedora pre-installed by selecting it as you customize your purchase. This is a pilot of Lenovo's Linux Community Series - Fedora Edition, beginning with ThinkPad P1 Gen2, ThinkPad P53, and ThinkPad X1 Gen8 laptops, possibly expanding to other models in the future." The Lenovo laptops will reportedly ship with software exclusively found in Fedora's repositories and therefore follow Fedora's strict open source policy.
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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) |
Looking for specific distributions
Hunting-for-a child-friendly-distro asks: You list so many different versions but are there any distros that are specifically aimed at children (under 12)?
DistroWatch answers: Distributions for children are often presented as having other priorities, apart from just being kid-friendly, such as a focus on education or running on low-resource computers, so they may not be marketed specifically toward children. This can make them harder to find.
There are not many distributions I know of aimed at children under the age of 12. There used to be HandyLinux and DoudouLinux, but they have since been discontinued. You might want to look at ubermix, which is aimed at school-age children and is currently sitting on our waiting list. You may also want to look at the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) distribution.
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Supporting-older-hardware asks: Where can I find a distro that still supports i386? Some distros claim to but don't actually work.
DistroWatch answers: Part of the problem with hunting down an operating system which supports the i386 CPU architecture is the term i386 has also become short-hand for any 32-bit member of the x86 process family. Often times if you visit a distribution's download page (or mirrors) you will find they offer "i386" and "amd64" builds, the latter for any 64-bit processor. But since i386 is often used to refer to any 32-bit build, you might actually be downloading install media for i586 or i686 CPUs and the software will not really run on i386 computers.
Calling the builds i386 is not exactly wrong, since most developers know i386 can refer to any 32-bit x86 CPU, but it is a broad generalization that can catch people running real i386 processors off guard.
At this point you are unlikely to find current, actively maintained distributions which support true i386 builds. The reason is i386 support has been dropped from the Linux kernel. (I think i486, i586 and i686 are still supported at the time of writing.) This makes it impossible for a modern build of the kernel to run on true i386 hardware. To run i386 software you will need to find an older copy of a distribution or one that still provides patched versions of older kernels. You might want to look at Tiny Core Linux or SliTaz GNU/Linux. Both are designed to run in very low-resource environments (on computers with less than 100MB of RAM) and will probably run on older processors.
If you need true i386 support then you might also want to explore some lightweight BSD platforms. I believe both OpenBSD and NetBSD, to name two, still run on i386 processors.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
NixOS 20.03
The NixOS project has announced the release of NixOS 20.03, the latest stable version of the project's independently-developed Linux distribution with a unique approach to package and configuration management, as well as a custom package manager called "Nix": "Release 20.03 'Markhor'. In addition to numerous new and upgraded packages, this release has the following highlights: support is planned until the end of October 2020, handing over to 20.09; core version changes - GCC 9.2.0, glibc 2.30, Linux kernel 5.4, Mesa 19.3.3, OpenSSL 1.1.1d; desktop version changes - KDE Plasma 5.17.5, KDE Applications: 19.12.3, GNOME 3.34, Pantheon 5.1.3; Linux kernel is updated to branch 5.4 by default; PostgreSQL for NixOS service now defaults to version 11; the graphical installer image starts the graphical session automatically, before you'd be greeted by a tty and asked to enter systemctl start display-manager; it is now possible to disable the display-manager from running by selecting the 'Disable display-manager' quirk in the boot menu." Read the detailed release notes for further information.
Lubuntu 20.04
The Lubuntu team has announced the availability of Lubuntu 20.04, a long-term support (LTS) release. This release used the LXQt desktop (most previous releases used LXDE as the default desktop) and uses the Calamares system installer instead of the Ubiquity installer used by most other official Ubuntu editions. "This is the fourth Lubuntu release with LXQt as the main desktop environment. The Lubuntu project, in 18.10 and successive releases, will no longer support the LXDE desktop environment or tools in the Ubuntu archive, and will instead focus on the LXQt desktop environment. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release: LXQt 0.14.1. Qt 5.12.8 LTS. Mozilla Firefox 75, which will receive updates from the Ubuntu Security Team throughout the support cycle of the release. The LibreOffice 6.4.2 suite. VLC 3.0.9.2, for viewing media and listening to music. Featherpad 0.12.1, for notes and code editing. Discover Software Center 5.18.4, for an easy, graphical way to install and update software. The powerful and fast email client Trojita 0.7 to get you to inbox zero in no time." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Lubuntu 20.04 -- Running the LXQt desktop
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Ubuntu 20.04
Iain Lane has announced the release of Ubuntu 20.04, a new long-term support (LTS) version of the popular distribution. "The Ubuntu kernel has been updated to the 5.4 based Linux kernel, with additional support for Wireguard VPN, AUFS5, and improved support for IBM, Intel, Raspberry Pi and AMD hardware. Ubuntu Desktop 20.04 LTS features the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment, 3.36. Notable changes from 18.04 LTS include performance improvements, a new lock screen design, and support for fractional scaling under X11. 20.04 LTS also features a new look-and-feel: the Yaru theme, available in both light and dark variants. 20.04 LTS also brings support for installing an Ubuntu desktop system on top of ZFS. The latest version brings performance enhancements and optional encryption support. Zsys, Ubuntu’s ZFS system tool, provides automated system and user state saving. Tight integration with GRUB allows a user to revert to any system state on boot and go back in time to pave the way to a bulletproof Ubuntu Desktop." Further details can be found in the distribution's release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu Studio 20.04
The Ubuntu Studio team has announced the release of Ubuntu Studio 20.04, a long-term support release which receives three years of security updates. "The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu Studio 20.04, code-named "Focal Fossa”. This marks Ubuntu Studio’s 27th release. This release is a Long-Term Support release and as such, it is supported for 3 years (until April 2023). Since it’s just out, you may experience some issues, so you might want to wait a bit before upgrading. Please see the release notes for a complete list of changes and known issues." The release announcement displays screenshots and offers upgrade instructions for existing users. It also lists new software available in this release, along with items which were removed from version 20.04, often due to Python 2 reaching the end of its supported life.
Kubuntu 20.04
The Kubuntu team has announced the release of Kubuntu 20.04. The new release features the KDE Plasma 5.18 desktop and offers three years of security updates. "The Kubuntu Team is happy to announce that Kubuntu 20.04 LTS has been released, featuring the beautiful KDE Plasma 5.18 LTS: simple by default, powerful when needed. Codenamed Focal Fossa, Kubuntu 20.04 continues our tradition of giving you Friendly Computing by integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs. Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 5.4-based kernel, KDE Frameworks 5.68, Plasma 5.18 LTS and KDE Applications 19.12.3. Kubuntu has seen many updates for other applications, both in our default install, and installable from the Ubuntu archive." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Kubuntu 20.04 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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Ubuntu MATE 20.04
Martin Wimpress has announced the release of Ubuntu MATE 20.04. The new release, which will receive three years of support, ships with version 1.24 of the MATE desktop and introduces a firmware update tool called fwupd. "Those of you who follow the desktop Linux news will know that upstream MATE Desktop recently released version 1.24. Ubuntu MATE 20.04 is shipping with MATE Desktop 1.24. Thus, all of the improvements in MATE Desktop 1.24 are present in Ubuntu MATE 20.04 LTS. Since the last LTS we worked on the following: Added multiple coloured theme variations as one-click installs for those of you who simply don’t like Chelsea Cucumber. Added experimental ZFS install option. Added GameMode from Feral Interactive. Fixed several crashers in Brisk Menu and added keyboard navigation. Fixed panel layout switching which is now stable and reliable via MATE Tweak Tweak and Ubuntu MATE Welcome. Fixed rendering window controls on HiDPI displays." Further details on the new version can be found in the project's release announcement.
Ubuntu Kylin 20.04
Ubuntu Kylin 20.04, an official Ubuntu edition customised for the users in China, has been released. This release comes with an updated version of the UKUI desktop environment (a fork of MATE): "The Ubuntu Kylin team is pleased to announce the official release of Ubuntu Kylin's open-source operating system, version 20.04 LTS (code-named 'Focal Fossa'). Ubuntu Kylin 20.04 is the fourth long-term support (LTS) version and it offers 3 years of technical support. The new version of Ubuntu Kylin 20.04 LTS comes with the new UKUI 3.0 desktop environment preview and it supports x86 and arm64 architectures, which further optimizes the 4K HD display effect and application component stability. The new Kirin cloud account function unifies the identity authentication of all platforms and provides users with the cloud synchronization function. It also fixes 539 known issues, such as the inability of the taskbar to preview minimized apps and a file manager memory leak." See the release announcements (in Simplified Chinese or in English) for further information and screenshots.
Xubuntu 20.04
Yousuf Philips has announced the release of Xubuntu 20.04, the latest stable version from the project that develops an official Ubuntu spin with Xfce as the preferred desktop: "The Xubuntu team is happy to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 20.04. Xubuntu 20.04, code-named 'Focal Fossa', is a long-term support (LTS) release and will be supported for three years, until April 2023. The Xubuntu team has been hard at work for the last six months of this development cycle improving both the Xfce desktop environment and the Xubuntu user experience following our 19.10 release, which introduced Xfce 4.14 for the first time. We were thrilled by the response to the Ubuntu testing week which helped us make 20.04 another great and stable release. Highlights: a brand-new dark theme, Greybird-dark, has been added, complementing the default Greybird theme; six community wallpapers are bundled from winners of the Community Wallpaper Contest; with the end of life of Python 2, we no longer ship it by default, while apt-offline and pidgin-libnotify are no longer included." Read the rest of the release announcement for further information and known issues.
Ubuntu Budgie 20.04
To conclude the much-awaited Ubuntu LTS release day, here is David Mohammed's announcement of the release of Ubuntu Budgie 20.04: "We are pleased to announce the release of the new version of our distribution, our second long-term support (LTS) release as an official flavor of the Ubuntu family. This LTS build is supported for three years while the regular releases are supported for 9 months. The new version rolls-up various developments, fixes and optimizations that have been released since the 18.04 LTS release in April 2018: stylish menu applet; Budgie-based network manager applet; Window Shuffler - a keyboard-friendly tiling CTRL+ALT+keypad numbers; the currently focussed window can be tiled to each corner, side to side or maximized and unmaximized all from the keyboard; desktop layouts - choose your default desktop layout with one click; 4K resolution Budgie desktop and Budgie applet support; GNOME Firmware and Drawing are the new default applications; Ubuntu Budgie team wallpapers for 20.04...." See the full release announcement for a complete list of new features.
Manjaro Linux 20.0
Philip Müller has announced the release of Manjaro Linux 20.0, a major new update of the project's rolling-release distribution, originally forked from Arch Linux, with a choice of GNOME, KDE and Xfce desktops: "After two months of development we are proud to announce Manjaro 'Lysia' to our community. The Xfce edition remains our flagship offering and has received the attention it deserves. Only a few can claim to offer such a polished, integrated and leading-edge Xfce experience. With this release we ship Xfce 4.14 and have mostly focused on polishing the user experience with the desktop and window manager. Also we have switched to a new theme called Matcha. A new feature Display-Profiles allows you to store one or more profiles for your preferred display configuration. We also have implemented auto-application of profiles when new displays are connected. Our KDE edition provides the powerful, mature and feature-rich Plasma 5.18 desktop environment with a unique look-and-feel, which we completely re-designed in 2020." Here is the full release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 1,942
- Total data uploaded: 31.5TB
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| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
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Summary of expected upcoming releases
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| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Running an older CPU than i686
In our Questions and Answers section this week we talked about 32-bit CPUs, how they are labeled, and how the term "i386" is sometimes used as a catch-all for 32-bit machines. These days most people are running modern 64-bit machines or, if they have a 32-bit processor, it is often in the relatively newer i686 family. We would like to hear if you are running a processor older than i686 (such as i386, i486, or i586). Let us know which operating system you are running on these older machines in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using a Linux appliance at home in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Running older, 32-bit CPUs
| I run an i386 CPU: | 59 (4%) |
| I run an i486 CPU: | 19 (1%) |
| I run an i586 CPU: | 54 (3%) |
| I run an i686 CPU: | 193 (11%) |
| My main PC has an ARM CPU: | 20 (1%) |
| All my PCs are 64-bit: | 936 (56%) |
| I run another family of CPU: | 8 (0%) |
| Some combination of the above: | 367 (22%) |
| None of the above: | 17 (1%) |
| Unsure: | 7 (0%) |
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| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
New projects added to database
KISS
KISS is a meta-distribution which provides a minimal, command line environment (using BusyBox) and a package manager (called kiss) written in a shell script. The project strives to reduce the size and requirements of packages to provide a lean and more fully understandable operating system.
* * * * *
Distributions added to waiting list
- DXT2. DXT2 is a Debian-based distribution featuring the Xfce desktop. The desktop has been altered to be more familiar to former Windows users.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 4 May 2020. 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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If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
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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 |
| 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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| Random Distribution | 
Semplice Linux
Semplice Linux was a simple, fast and lightweight distribution based on Debian's unstable branch. It includes a small collection of up-to-date applications running on top of the Openbox window manager.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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