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1 • Tagging files on Linux (by Alfrex on 2020-06-15 01:41:08 GMT from Germany)
For media files could be "thunar-media-tags-plugin" or "jbrout".
2 • Regolith-Linux (by Tim on 2020-06-15 02:06:12 GMT from United States)
I've not tried installing Regolith from the ISO, as I want the choice of environments. A tiling window manager is useful for some specific workflows for me but not all.
That said, I added the PPA to a pre-existing Mint 19.3 (Ubuntu 18.04) install and it's great. It's just another session you can select at login. So on tasks where tiling is more helpful I have it, and I'm back to MATE when I need it. It's a beautiful environment that's well documented and easy to use. I'm sorry you didn't get to use it, as this has been one of the first new Linux software that's caught my attention in years- this seems to be a useful project.
3 • tagging - an opposite question (by manda tory on 2020-06-15 02:25:28 GMT from New Zealand)
No, I don't see why you would want to tag files. In confused UI's like Windows, where most users have zero clue as to where on C: their actual document, audio file or photo is found; Linux has a very simple and logical structure.
Now my question. Some image and video files downloaded from the net, when viewed, cause the creation of a .comment folder with XML files for these images or videos. How can I:
* prevent / block / alert for such cases?
* what exif info tags (there you have "tags" and my dislike for them) to stop this?
Exiftool might work for images, but what tags do I kill off? But for video files?
All these .comments folders are driving me crazy. I don't want them! You want to write or cause writing to my drive. You ASK. You don't just create folders and files behind my back.
4 • Tagging (by Andy Prough on 2020-06-15 02:41:33 GMT from United States)
I tag my files by naming them properly and putting them in a proper directory structure. It's easy to find every file associated with my dog if I use his name in the file name of every photo, video, vaccine record, etc of him that I add to my files. So I tag my files by giving proper names using my file manager and using the other apps with which I create or download files.
5 • Ah, to tag files! (by mvario on 2020-06-15 05:36:45 GMT from United States)
I would like to tag files, I really would. Back in the long-ago when I used Windows I did it, I liked it, I used it. If it was something that the file managers I uses under XFCE (pcmanfm, Thunar, XFE) did then I would certainly use it.
6 • Regolith (by Any on 2020-06-15 05:48:04 GMT from Spain)
Interesting, I've tried Regolith in Virtualbox and it worked without any problem.
7 • Tags, Rating, Comment in KDE (by usman on 2020-06-15 07:04:25 GMT from Indonesia)
When i right click file/folder from Dolphin file manager, then select 'details' tab, there is Tags, Rating, Comment, etc. Which actually i little surprise why this stuff is still there because i was installed my Kubuntu with minimal install and removed/disabled the file indexer/baloo/PIM as much as i can.
But i don't know if that what the op looking for, because i don't use that features.
It seem that the Questions and Answers pretty accurate to describe my condition : the 'tags' feature is there but its not popular (at least for me), well you can say i actually hate that feature that's why i try to remove them as much as i can. (i'm sorry no offense to the developers/people who like that features).
8 • Rrgolith (by Chris on 2020-06-15 07:28:58 GMT from United Kingdom)
I too have installed Regolith desktop as a PPA on Linux Mint 19.3. I think it's fantastic and allows me to tile where necessary (which can be a godsend).
I had considered moving over to Pop to get their tiling, but this has saved me the upheaval of a fresh install.
9 • Ability to tag files is actually a good thing (by msi on 2020-06-15 08:07:38 GMT from Germany)
I don't understand the argument against being able to tag files. “Tagging” files “by naming them properly and putting them in a proper directory structure” completely misses the point of tagging.
For example, if you had a dozen notes on a variety of aspects of Unix shell scripting, would you really want to include “Unix” and “shell” in the name of each and every one of those files? I wouldn't because that way of naming files will create a mess, eventually.
Even better: Bookmarks in your Web browser. Say, you are building a collection of what you believe are well-designed Web sites (e.g., static, no Javascript, no tracking etc.). Now, you find a Web site that helps you understand how to do $thing in $programming_language in a sane way and you bookmark the respective page.
If you only used bookmark names and directories, you would either end up with the entries in your bookmark collection carrying weird and excessively long names, or you'd have to create any bookmark that serves more than a single purpose in several places, which is cumbersome and hard to maintain. Tagging just solves that completely.
So, yes, using reasonable file names in reasonably structured directory trees is generally the way to go. But it has its shortcomings (It's hierarchical!) and tagging offers a way to mitigate them and by that actually aids being able to keep file names and directory structures sane.
10 • Tagging Files (by DaveT on 2020-06-15 11:01:14 GMT from United Kingdom)
The only place I use tags is for the media files on the NAS that has all the audio and video for my hifi and TV. Very useful feature!
For 'normal' files I use a very hierarchical directory and naming structure. No need for tags there!
11 • hifi .. tagging (by Myrtle on 2020-06-15 12:27:09 GMT from United States)
@10 Well now. So, linux users aren't all just a bunch of young geeky nerds with empty wadded Skittle packages being batted around the floor by the cat.
I began tagging when I discovered it as yet another amazing control feature in OUR hands. I don't do it often, but it's there and I consider it in a long list of what's great about linux as opposed to windows and mac.
12 • Tagging files (by Tim on 2020-06-15 12:46:44 GMT from United States)
I responded that I don't tag files, and for the most part I never do. I occasionally do some tagging within applications, such as Firefox Bookmarks.
I used to use BeOS way back when it was a thing, and file tagging was one of the features. You can conceive all sorts of ways to envision your tagging, but it always ends up just being another mess. Something won't fit your scheme, so you invent a new tag. Then, nothing else ever needs that tag. In the end, you just forget about the tags.
13 • Tagging, and tiling. (by Friar Tux on 2020-06-15 13:49:33 GMT from Canada)
I voted that I don't tag. However, the file manager (Nemo) does have 'Bookmarks'. I don't use them a lot but they work rather nicely. I can bookmark any file or folder I use quite often. Works for me.
As for Regolith/tiling:- my preference is to line up my open apps on the task bar. It may take an extra click or two, but it allows me to work in maxed windows which I find easier. This works best when working with graphics, transfering colours or bits from one image to another. In text files, my editor has tags along the top for multiple opened files, as does my office suite. Again, it's a preference thing as I find tiled windows way too confusing. I did experiment with the double click/rolling up the window into its title bar. That worked quite well, but setting it up was a pain.
14 • is distri package management really a new idea? (by frimical on 2020-06-15 14:45:15 GMT from France)
Hello, and thank you for reviewing this "research" distro :'distri'.
Since long time ago, ( meaning its bearth...) TinycoreLinux distro was installing packages basically in two main ways:
1-first mounting needed package on a ro dir, then
2- incorporating/installing it either by:
a- copying its contents to the running filesystem ( then cleaning the mount ) : ram only but more ram
b- symlinking its contents into the running filesystem: less ram but not ram only, unless...
Nothing new on earth to be surprised of regarding distri's research! approach, neither of the presence of many loop mounted fs... this goes with that...
In all cases, this package integration model is very modular, light and fast.
Dependencies are known in advance and never downloaded, mounted, neither loaded/copied twice. And above all, it could be just 'on demand', meaning: 'no need to wear all our clothes. for all the seasons, at the same time, just to go the bathroom...' tiny but totally efficient.
Regards
15 • Tagging (by Tom on 2020-06-15 14:45:45 GMT from Germany)
I used to use keyword tagging in Digikam and was disappointed when I found out that the keywords are only in the exif attributes would therefore not show up in the extended file attributes in Dolphin. I remember someone working on that, not sure whether it has ever been "fixed".
16 • Tags are useful for disks (by Kingneutron on 2020-06-15 15:49:07 GMT from United States)
I don't use tags for files, but on the OSX desktop I color-tag the disks to denote which are internal/external/USB.
17 • Tags (by Cheker on 2020-06-15 17:24:06 GMT from Portugal)
Do songs count? That's about it, with EasyTag. Don't really use other types of tags.
18 • Tiling & tags (by voidpin on 2020-06-15 19:44:38 GMT from Sweden)
Tiling isn't for everyone but, that's all I use. AweswomeWM and spectrWM on two different laptops. File tags? I don't even use a file manager. There's tree, rm, mv, cp, mount, ls,...
19 • Tagging files (by Mim Yucel on 2020-06-15 21:12:06 GMT from Turkey)
I would very like tagging files in lots (batch renaming) as in Microsoft Windows, but not possible. So I do (must do) rename all files one by one which is much time consuming. I need this especially by reorganising my photos.
20 • @3 • question (by manda tory kiwi) XML files in .comment folder (by Somewhat Reticent on 2020-06-15 23:38:40 GMT from United States)
Aren't these made by file manager services like those for thumbnail image display?
(Like 2009 bug at bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gthumb/+bug/496603 ?)
21 • Tagging files (by StephenC on 2020-06-15 23:56:30 GMT from United States)
I voted "I do not tag" also. But, like @17 I tag my audio files with EasyTag so that my mp3 player can display a menu sorted by songs/artists, etc. I can see wanting tags in DigiKam so that I can query for groups of related pictures, but I haven't invested any time in it. Maybe it isn't that useful after all. I haven't found a need to tags at the filesystem level otherwise. Most files are obvious by their name or location already.
@19 By "tagging files" to rename them, I think you mean "select a group based on some commonality"? Thunar (XFCE) file manager has a bulk rename extension that might help you. A quick check of Debian packages also shows autoremname, krenamer (KDE), and mrenamer are available.
22 • File Tagging (by Woodstock69 on 2020-06-16 00:15:55 GMT from Australia)
I use file tagging extensively, where possible, for my photography workflow. The biggest bugbear I have with Dolphin FM is its superior lack of tagging functionality. Windows Explorer gives you the full range of EXIF tags that can be modified (where possible) or otherwise, displayed as columns. Dolphin? Not so much.
Now, as to why i need them? Efficient sorting! I can sort on created date, comment, photo type, GPS loc, etc, etc, right from the file manager. I don't want to load up Digikam or other huge app just to sort my photo collection into specific folders and kill duplicates.
I once wrote to Dolphin's Dev and felt like he gave me the middle finger suggesting Dolphin was a file manager only. Really? And how do you expect me to manage my photo files without EXIF accessibility and tagging functions!! I was really disappointed at his arrogant reply. In this respect Windows Explorer shines.
I'd really love to use Digikam more for tagging and sorting photos, and it's brilliant while it works, but, in Kubuntu at least, at every release, it crashes randomly, is slow and makes sorting photos cumbersome. Mind you, having several million photos to collate may be the issue. YMMV.
23 • Tagging Files (by Doug on 2020-06-16 03:03:07 GMT from United States)
"As such I am not aware of any distributions which ship with a file manager that includes tagging as a standard or default feature. "
Dolphin, and therefore any distro with KDE Plasma as its desktop, features tagging as a standard feature.
24 • regolith (by dingle-bury on 2020-06-16 03:57:01 GMT from Australia)
I've tried Regolith several times, as a distrohopper, but get thwarted by my own 'click and drag' bias. I believe those who describe tiling window managers as more efficient, and I'll continue to try, but I feel like I am missing something and there's so many choices and keys to learn.
Regolith is now up to 20.04.0-1.4.1, I get motivated to try a distro after a review hasn't worked out, maybe a bit late now, but i3 is it's own memory muscle fun..
25 • File tagging and dolphin (by randomly generated entity on 2020-06-16 05:59:33 GMT from United States)
I'll admit that I haven't dug too deeply into file tagging, beyond a meticulously tagged (using mostly Picard) music collection of some 150,000+ files. That's all organized by artist and/or album, in appropriately named folders, so it's not completely necessary, but I like having Clementine show me everything in as logical and organized a way as possible. I don't have a large collection of photos or I's probably attack those in a similar way.
As for dolphin, I hadn't really considered its tagging abilities until @22 and @23 got me thinking. It's there., just not immediately obvious. The view menu has the "Show Additional Information..." item, and there's further magic possible through the editable location area. All this without even enabling baloo, which apparently enriches the possibilities.
So yes, you can indeed sort your files in all kinds of not immediately apparent ways. Doubt I'll use it often, but it's nice to know it's there in my favorite file manager.
26 • Portable tags (by Klaus on 2020-06-16 07:09:27 GMT from Hong Kong)
I think that tagging files is useful and I would like it to be a standard feature in any operating systems, certainly on Linux.
For me the main problem that needs to be addressed it the portability of tags: (1) tags should not be application specific, and (2) it should be straightforward to backup the tags along with the files.
27 • Regolith (by Stranger Tides on 2020-06-16 09:07:43 GMT from Singapore)
I don't know why Regolith was not working for you. I had a smooth experience with Regolith.
Though, it consumes more memory comparing to i3 implementation. Because, it is GNOME fallback under hood.
28 • links instead of tags (by Ram on 2020-06-16 13:22:37 GMT from India)
Those accustomed to simple directory/files style of storage, can use symbolic liks or hard links to the original file at appropriate locations (instead of tags or weird filenames).
It will not work on non-UNIX or (may be) non-Linux systems. So don't follow this trick if using those systems also.
29 • symbolic links/tagging (by Myrtle the Devuan FanGurl on 2020-06-16 14:09:15 GMT from United States)
@28 that's all I've ever done until I poked around dolphin a while back.. no matter the distro (replace thunar, etc).
30 • Linking vs. tagging (by msi on 2020-06-16 14:12:08 GMT from Germany)
@28: The key here is “appropriate location”. Using tags instead of creating links within your existing directory tree would mean you don't have to think about appropriate locations because tagging would abstract from the directory layout.
31 • @20 - thanks for the insight (by manda tory on 2020-06-16 20:06:24 GMT from New Zealand)
@20 Somewhat Reticent, thank you for that insight.
It seems to only be a tiny number of files which trigger the thumbnailer into creating these files. So I would deduce that some metadata within those files is the cause. Hence my question.
So its a dual-front approach. (i) remove the tags that trigger this, (ii) somehow find a way to configure the thumbnailer not create additional files.
32 • Tagging (by Flavio R. Cavalcanti on 2020-06-17 01:20:12 GMT from Brazil)
As said by @7 it is an old resource for KDE & Dolphin users, but I use to disable or remove PIM / Baloo / Akonadi, too.
As @4 I prefer to use relevant key-names for files, folders and partitions, and even without Baloo indexing, a simple CTRL+F withing Dolphin works very fast to me.
33 • Tagging files (by Wally on 2020-06-17 14:06:57 GMT from United States)
I tag my mp3 files with puddletag (http://docs.puddletag.net/), a FLOSS alternative to mp3tag (https://www.mp3tag.de/en/). Unfortunately, the main puddletag implementation uses qt4 and python2, both of which are now removed by default in Debian Sid. But the Debian maintainer of puddletag has been doing a lot of heavy lifting on a python3+qt5 fork (https://github.com/sandrotosi/puddletag/tree/pyqt5%2Bpy3)
My music files are the only ones I bother to tag. Back in the olden days on a non-free OS, I would actually use the "attributes" tab of the properties window on files and give (mostly Word documents) some fields some values but I don't think I ever searched for these files. The directory structure of the common filesystems is quite sufficient for not losing files.
34 • Regolith (by Superfish on 2020-06-17 19:57:17 GMT from Isle of Man)
Disappointing review of Regolith, Jessie. I assume that the review was written a few weeks before publishing, which is a shame as their website clearly states that there is a version based on Ubuntu 20.04 (an LTS release) which may well prove to be more stable. A number of people above have commented that it works fine for them but now lots of readers will be put off trying it. I feel sorry for the developers, I wonder if you contacted them before publishing to give them a chance to explain where they are up to with the project? Moreover, their website and documentation looks pretty good and they seem to have a clear sense of direction.
I don't know about anybody else, but I come here to read a review of a distro. We all know Linux can be a PITA to either install or configure and I would have expected a bit more effort from a seasoned Linuxer! You could have done a quick Ubuntu install and then installed from the PPA - would have maybe taken a couple of hours in a VM, or tried the older release but then I don't know how much time you are prepared to spend on a weekly column.
Perhaps in future when a review has to be abandoned in that way, you could put a request out to the readership for someone to chip in with their own review?
35 • Tagging files (by cykodrone on 2020-06-17 20:20:20 GMT from Austria)
The only files I tag are music files, many of them are incorrect upon arrival, so they need to be researched and fixed. I use EasyTag or whatever, the most popular that works, they don't always tag correctly from the web located music info databases. I avoid tagging other types of files, I like my privacy.
36 • SLS Linux (by hsw on 2020-06-18 04:26:11 GMT from Taiwan)
This was the first Linux distro I tried on a 4MB 386SX notebook with 20MB HD. It was like having a real computer (MS-DOS felt more like microComputer). However it was not able to handle the LCD backlight and 30min was the longest setting in the BIOS, no always-on option. The first SLS version could not boot from its CD and cane with a boot floppy, but later release coulld. Later I upgraded to Slackware an in 1994 switched to FreeBSD. If i remember correctly the kernel was 0.9 in that first SLS release.
37 • Very first Linux (by Friar Tux on 2020-06-18 21:34:48 GMT from Canada)
@36 (hsw) The very first Linux distro I tried I can even remember the name. It sent me high-tailing back to my Windows 3.11, and while I played with the odd distro here and there, it wasn't until Windows 10 that I seriously became a Linux fan.
38 • moving from windows to linux ... (by Otis on 2020-06-19 16:22:28 GMT from United States)
@37 What distro did you end up with? Or do you hop around instead of keeping one? I hop around but had settled on debian then it went systemd so went to devuan but could not resolve machine over heading issue so went back to manjaro which runs fast and cool.
You win a lot but lose a little too with linux. Windows never over heated this laptop. Left windows for myriad other well known reasons.
39 • tagging files using Emblems (by mmphosis on 2020-06-20 01:49:47 GMT from Canada)
I tag files using the Thunar or Nemo using Emblems. It's a bit awkward to set the icon, right click, properties, Emblem tab, choose icon -- in the Finder it was Label menu, choose a label. Tags are something not very permanent that I don't care too much about for my files. It is more of a very temporary status indication. I only have at most 3 different icons (and my meaning for the icon) that I might use in a day: No icon (default), Check icon (active, current), Gear icon (active but unexpected for today). It's simply a visual clue in a working folder, I don't search, and by tomorrow I don't care and start new files and emblems.
40 • Which distro... (by Friar Tux on 2020-06-20 13:24:48 GMT from Canada)
@38 (Otis) My distro of choice is Linux Mint/Cinnamon. It consistently played nice with numerous machines. Most of the other distros, were rather picky depending on the hardware. Some worked great on one laptop but had issues on another. Eventually, I had Fedora/KDE on one machine, Manjaro/KDE on another and Mint/Cinnamon on a third. And then KDE started going wacky. (Note:- Manjaro had issues an the other two machines, Fedora worked on two but not the third. Mint worked on every machine out-of-box.) Anyway, in the end, I got tired of all the issues and just used Mint.
41 • distro/machine hopping (by Otis on 2020-06-20 15:22:22 GMT from United States)
@40 yes indeed the "linux is great" as long as you have the compatible machine/distro luck thing. I do see and hear a lot about the Ubuntu derived distros staying on more different types of hardware. I do believe they have far more public testers and bug reporters out there than most distros.
Yeah Manjaro went systemd .. don't know what to say other than I love the quick feel of Arch based experience and I confess to imagining that I will some day be able to go to Arch and build it to my liking on this machine just the same as Manjaro has done for me.
42 • @ 41 Installing Arch (by OstroL on 2020-06-20 21:35:12 GMT from Poland)
You might try the Zen Installer to install Arch. It is a type of a script that was there officially before 2013 with Arch. Just google Zen Installer and have a look. You'd have a pure Arch install together a desktop environment within 15 minutes.
43 • Zen Installer (by vern on 2020-06-21 02:27:59 GMT from United States)
I goggled the zen installer. Came across 2 for 1. One was a script unrelated to zen that looked interesting, the other was the Zen Installer. Watched a 20min vedio while the guy installed Arch the Zen way.
Very nice and easy. I did notice that the guy installing Arch through Zen was using EndeavouOS!
44 • @43 Zen Installer (by OstroL on 2020-06-21 06:51:02 GMT from Poland)
I suppose, it was once called revenge installer. https://sourceforge.net/projects/revenge-installer/
45 • Compatibility (by Friar Tux on 2020-06-21 15:03:16 GMT from Canada)
@41 (Otis) I was actually thinking of it the other way around, that if the distro doesn't work on your machine, try another, similar distro. With the amount of distros out there, you will always find one the works. It's not a luck thing, just a bit of homework. There ARE a few that seem to work fine right off the bat - Mint, Zorin, Ubuntu, Peppermint... Start with one of those and then experiment with one that's a bit more difficult. That's what makes Linux so great.
46 • Arch/Zen (by Otis on 2020-06-21 19:49:13 GMT from United States)
@44 @43 @42 I just read the Forbes article in that Zen search at google list:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2019/06/10/arch-linux-os-challenge-2-alternatives-install-gui-script-easy/#1e08d8744d94
Noted that the author advises to install arch by hand the arch way first! So, learn your stuff then go streamlined.. still thinking about that.
Thank you for the Zen hookup, OstroL.
47 • Arch installers (by Cheker on 2020-06-21 21:13:48 GMT from Portugal)
Speaking of Arch installers, thought I'd throw my hat in and shill for Anarchy. I haven't tried Zen, but I have tried Anarchy and I like it a lot. I've installed Arch the good old fashioned way once before, and I've never replicated it since. At some point I just f it up. Anarchy gives you a lot of choice so installing pure Arch is....unnecessary, unless you just want that experience.
https://anarchyinstaller.org/
Number of Comments: 47
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| • Issue 1169 (2026-04-20): Lakka 6.1, free software and source-based distributions, FreeBSD Foundation publishes compatible laptop list, Debian holds Project Leader election, Haiku progresses ARM64 port, Mint to extend development cycle, Linux 7.0 released |
| • Issue 1168 (2026-04-13): pearOS 2026.03, EndeavourOS 2026.03.06, which distros are adopting age verification, Arch adjusts its firewall packages, Linux dropping i486 support, Red Hat extends its release cycle, Debian's APT introduces rollbacks, Redox improves its scheduler |
| • Issue 1167 (2026-04-06): Origami Linux 2026.03, answering questions for Linux newcomers, Ubuntu MATE seeking new contributors, Ubuntu software centre is expanding Deb support, FreeBSD fixes forum exploit, openSUSE 15 Leap nears its end of life |
| • Issue 1166 (2026-03-30): NetBSD jails, publishing software for Linux, Ubuntu joins Rust Foundation, Canonical plans to trim GRUB features, Peppermint works on new utilities, PINE64 shows off open hardware capabilities |
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| • Issue 1161 (2026-02-23): The Guix package manager, quick Q&As, Gentoo migrating its mirrors, Fedora considers more informative kernel panic screens, GhostBSD testing alternative X11 implementation, Asahi makes progress with Apple M3, NetBSD userland ported, FreeBSD improves web-based system management |
| • Issue 1160 (2026-02-16): Noid and AgarimOS, command line tips, KDE Linux introduces delta updates, Redox OS hits development milestone, Linux Mint develops a desktop-neutral account manager, sudo developer seeks sponsorship |
| • Issue 1159 (2026-02-09): Sharing files on a network, isolating processes on Linux, LFS to focus on systemd, openSUSE polishes atomic updates, NetBSD not likely to adopt Rust code, COSMIC roadmap |
| • Issue 1158 (2026-02-02): Manjaro 26.0, fastest filesystem, postmarketOS progress report, Xfce begins developing its own Wayland window manager, Bazzite founder interviewed |
| • Issue 1157 (2026-01-26): Setting up a home server, what happened to convergence, malicious software entering the Snap store, postmarketOS automates hardware tests, KDE's login manager works with systemd only |
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| • Issue 1153 (2025-12-22): Best projects of 2025, is software ever truly finished?, Firefox to adopt AI components, Asahi works on improving the install experience, Mageia presents plans for version 10 |
| • Issue 1152 (2025-12-15): OpenBSD 7.8, filtering websites, Jolla working on a Linux phone, Germany saves money with Linux, Ubuntu to package AMD tools, Fedora demonstrates AI troubleshooting, Haiku packages Go language |
| • Issue 1151 (2025-12-08): FreeBSD 15.0, fun command line tricks, Canonical presents plans for Ubutnu 26.04, SparkyLinux updates CDE packages, Redox OS gets modesetting driver |
| • Issue 1150 (2025-12-01): Gnoppix 25_10, exploring if distributions matter, openSUSE updates tumbleweed's boot loader, Fedora plans better handling of broken packages, Plasma to become Wayland-only, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1149 (2025-11-24): MX Linux 25, why are video drivers special, systemd experiments with musl, Debian Libre Live publishes new media, Xubuntu reviews website hack |
| • Issue 1148 (2025-11-17): Zorin OS 18, deleting a file with an unusual name, NetBSD experiments with sandboxing, postmarketOS unifies its documentation, OpenBSD refines upgrades, Canonical offers 15 years of support for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1147 (2025-11-10): Fedora 43, the size and stability of the Linux kernel, Debian introducing Rust to APT, Redox ports web engine, Kubuntu website off-line, Mint creates new troubleshooting tools, FreeBSD improves reproducible builds, Flatpak development resumes |
| • Issue 1146 (2025-11-03): StartOS 0.4.0, testing piped commands, Ubuntu Unity seeks help, Canonical offers Ubuntu credentials, Red Hat partners with NVIDIA, SUSE to bundle AI agent with SLE 16 |
| • Issue 1145 (2025-10-27): Linux Mint 7 "LMDE", advice for new Linux users, AlmaLinux to offer Btrfs, KDE launches Plasma 6.5, Fedora accepts contributions written by AI, Ubuntu 25.10 fails to install automatic updates |
| • Issue 1144 (2025-10-20): Kubuntu 25.10, creating and restoring encrypted backups, Fedora team debates AI, FSF plans free software for phones, ReactOS addresses newer drivers, Xubuntu reacts to website attack |
| • Issue 1143 (2025-10-13): openSUSE 16.0 Leap, safest source for new applications, Redox introduces performance improvements, TrueNAS Connect available for testing, Flatpaks do not work on Ubuntu 25.10, Kamarada plans to switch its base, Solus enters new epoch, Frugalware discontinued |
| • Issue 1142 (2025-10-06): Linux Kamarada 15.6, managing ZIP files with SQLite, F-Droid warns of impact of Android lockdown, Alpine moves ahead with merged /usr, Cinnamon gets a redesigned application menu |
| • Issue 1141 (2025-09-29): KDE Linux and GNOME OS, finding mobile flavours of Linux, Murena to offer phones with kill switches, Redox OS running on a smartphone, Artix drops GNOME |
| • Issue 1140 (2025-09-22): NetBSD 10.1, avoiding AI services, AlmaLinux enables CRB repository, Haiku improves disk access performance, Mageia addresses service outage, GNOME 49 released, Linux introduces multikernel support |
| • Issue 1139 (2025-09-15): EasyOS 7.0, Linux and central authority, FreeBSD running Plasma 6 on Wayland, GNOME restores X11 support temporarily, openSUSE dropping BCacheFS in new kernels |
| • Issue 1138 (2025-09-08): Shebang 25.8, LibreELEC 12.2.0, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, the importance of software updates, AerynOS introduces package sets, postmarketOS encourages patching upstream, openSUSE extends Leap support, Debian refreshes Trixie media |
| • Issue 1137 (2025-09-01): Tribblix 0m37, malware scanners flagging Linux ISO files, KDE introduces first-run setup wizard, CalyxOS plans update prior to infrastructure overhaul, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1136 (2025-08-25): CalyxOS 6.8.20, distros for running containers, Arch Linux website under attack,illumos Cafe launched, CachyOS creates web dashboard for repositories |
| • Issue 1135 (2025-08-18): Debian 13, Proton, WINE, Wayland, and Wayback, Debian GNU/Hurd 2025, KDE gets advanced Liquid Glass, Haiku improves authentication tools |
| • Issue 1134 (2025-08-11): Rhino Linux 2025.3, thoughts on malware in the AUR, Fedora brings hammered websites back on-line, NetBSD reveals features for version 11, Ubuntu swaps some command line tools for 25.10, AlmaLinux improves NVIDIA support |
| • Issue 1133 (2025-08-04): Expirion Linux 6.0, running Plasma on Linux Mint, finding distros which support X11, Debian addresses 22 year old bug, FreeBSD discusses potential issues with pkgbase, CDE ported to OpenBSD, Btrfs corruption bug hitting Fedora users, more malware found in Arch User Repository |
| • Issue 1132 (2025-07-28): deepin 25, wars in the open source community, proposal to have Fedora enable Flathub repository, FreeBSD plans desktop install option, Wayback gets its first release |
| • Issue 1131 (2025-07-21): HeliumOS 10.0, settling on one distro, Mint plans new releases, Arch discovers malware in AUR, Plasma Bigscreen returns, Clear Linux discontinued |
| • Issue 1130 (2025-07-14): openSUSE MicroOS and RefreshOS, sharing aliases between computers, Bazzite makes Bazaar its default Flatpak store, Alpine plans Wayback release, Wayland and X11 benchmarked, Red Hat offers additional developer licenses, openSUSE seeks feedback from ARM users, Ubuntu 24.10 reaches the end of its life |
| • Issue 1129 (2025-07-07): GLF OS Omnislash, the worst Linux distro, Alpine introduces Wayback, Fedora drops plans to stop i686 support, AlmaLinux builds EPEL repository for older CPUs, Ubuntu dropping existing RISC-V device support, Rhino partners with UBports, PCLinuxOS recovering from website outage |
| • Issue 1128 (2025-06-30): AxOS 25.06, AlmaLinux OS 10.0, transferring Flaptak bundles to off-line computers, Ubuntu to boost Intel graphics performance, Fedora considers dropping i686 packages, SDesk switches from SELinux to AppArmor |
| • Issue 1127 (2025-06-23): LastOSLinux 2025-05-25, most unique Linux distro, Haiku stabilises, KDE publishes Plasma 6.4, Arch splits Plasma packages, Slackware infrastructure migrating |
| • Issue 1126 (2025-06-16): SDesk 2025.05.06, renewed interest in Ubuntu Touch, a BASIC device running NetBSD, Ubuntu dropping X11 GNOME session, GNOME increases dependency on systemd, Google holding back Pixel source code, Nitrux changing its desktop, EFF turns 35 |
| • Issue 1125 (2025-06-09): RHEL 10, distributions likely to survive a decade, Murena partners with more hardware makers, GNOME tests its own distro on real hardware, Redox ports GTK and X11, Mint provides fingerprint authentication |
| • Issue 1124 (2025-06-02): Picking up a Pico, tips for protecting privacy, Rhino tests Plasma desktop, Arch installer supports snapshots, new features from UBports, Ubuntu tests monthly snapshots |
| • Issue 1123 (2025-05-26): CRUX 3.8, preventing a laptop from sleeping, FreeBSD improves laptop support, Fedora confirms GNOME X11 session being dropped, HardenedBSD introduces Rust in userland build, KDE developing a virtual machine manager |
| • Issue 1122 (2025-05-19): GoboLinux 017.01, RHEL 10.0 and Debian 12 updates, openSUSE retires YaST, running X11 apps on Wayland |
| • Issue 1121 (2025-05-12): Bluefin 41, custom file manager actions, openSUSE joins End of 10 while dropping Deepin desktop, Fedora offers tips for building atomic distros, Ubuntu considers replacing sudo with sudo-rs |
| • Issue 1120 (2025-05-05): CachyOS 250330, what it means when a distro breaks, Kali updates repository key, Trinity receives an update, UBports tests directory encryption, Gentoo faces losing key infrastructure |
| • Issue 1119 (2025-04-28): Ubuntu MATE 25.04, what is missing from Linux, CachyOS ships OCCT, Debian enters soft freeze, Fedora discusses removing X11 session from GNOME, Murena plans business services, NetBSD on a Wii |
| • Issue 1118 (2025-04-21): Fedora 42, strange characters in Vim, Nitrux introduces new package tools, Fedora extends reproducibility efforts, PINE64 updates multiple devices running Debian |
| • Full list of all issues |
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UBports
UBports is a community-developed fork of Canonical's Ubuntu Touch operating system for mobile devices. UBports works on getting the mobile operating system working on new devices, provides software updates and ports new versions of Ubuntu to mobile devices.
Status: Active
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View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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