 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 876, 27 July 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 30th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Keeping computers and networks secure is a process involving many approaches. The software we use is certainly a component, but there are other, non-technical, factors to consider. There is a human element to security, a balancing of approaches and procedures to consider. This week in our News section we discuss a few security tips. First we hear from the IPFire team on locking down and maintaining a network. Then we share tips from Fedora Magazine on how to migrate from the secure copy (scp) tool to the more flexible rsync command. We are also pleased to share some positive information about newer versions of the Linux kernel using less energy. Then, in our Questions and Answers column, we discuss different types of release models and how they stay up to date in different ways. This week we also share a review of the Artix Linux distribution. Bernhard Hoffmann took this project for a spin and he reports on his experiences with the various editions in our Feature Story. Though we mostly talk about Linux, in particular GNU/Linux distributions, on this website there are plenty of other open source operating systems in the world. We would like to know if you use any of them in our Opinion Poll. Please let us know which open source, non-Linux platforms you are using in the comments. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Artix Linux 20200125
- News: IPFire shares security tips, Fedora offers guide for switching from scp to rsync, Manjaro user tests kernel power consumption
- Questions and answers: Updating a rolling release versus a fixed release distribution
- Released last week: SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP2, GeckoLinux 152, REMnux 7
- Torrent corner: CloudyReady, GeckoLinux, IPFire, KDE neon, Omarine
- Upcoming releases: Tails 4.9
- Opinion poll: Open source alternatives to Linux
- New distributions: Laxer OS, AlterLinux, Serene Linux, RoshanTech POS OS, dahliaOS
- Reader comments
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| Feature Story (by Bernhard Hoffmann) |
Artix Linux 20200125
This is one of the lesser known distributions but it has garnered quite a few fans in its relatively short existence. Artix Linux, from hereon Artix in short, has a reader supplied rating of 8.4 as an average of 94 opinions on DistroWatch at the time of writing, which isn't bad for a distribution that is slightly more involved in terms of technical knowledge and experience a user should possess. Not to discourage the curious and the newcomers, but it is not an install and forget type of Linux though not really that hard to use either.
Artix is a systemd-free fork of Arch Linux that grew out of the Arch-OpenRC and Manjaro-OpenRC projects joining forces to provide installable images with alternative init solutions to Arch users who were unhappy with the parent moving to systemd. In fact, Arch was one of the early adopters. While in the beginning only OpenRC might have been offered, Artix now also provides install images using the runit and s6 init software, "because PID1 must be simple, secure and stable." [1] There's great variety and choice on the download page, but only the x86_64 architecture is supported. The project provides Artix base images of 520MB each, similar to a net-install or the Arch install image, and with Cinnamon, MATE, Plasma, Xfce, LXDE and LXQt ISO files for almost every major desktop environment. They weigh in between 939MB and 1.1GB depending on your chosen flavour. The page makes it clear what to expect with these, i.e. only a basic set of applications is included to get the user started: a file manager, a media player (MPV), a network manager, a document viewer, a web browser and the graphical installer. It is then up to us to add applications and shape the system to our needs and liking.
There are also community supported images labelled community-gtk and community-qt which are much larger at 2.3GB and 2.8GB respectively.
You can get every flavour with any of the three supported init systems. Official images seem to be respun now and then. At the time of writing most stable images are dated from February 2020, with the Xfce ISO labelled 20200506 apparently released in May. Further down the page there are also weekly snapshots that I guess incorporate the latest package updates, and testing images for GNOME and i3, again for all three init systems. That's a huge library to maintain and gives us a hint of how dedicated folks behind this project are. Should you have trouble with the latest version a few older ISOs have been archived and are accessible at the bottom.
Artix has been mentioned a few times in the comments section and having used ArchBang for a few years without the need to reinstall I'm quite comfortable with the Arch way. I quit this branch of Linux distributions when they moved to systemd so I kind of fall into their target audience and thought I would give it a try.
It needs to be said from the outset that this installation is only for testing purposes as I usually prefer an unchanging underlying base these days so as to avoid surprises with incompatible libraries and whatnot when gaming or just wanting to watch a movie with Kodi. While this has never really been an issue with Arch when I was running it you do not want to find out that something isn't working when you just sat back ready to watch the football or a TV show. Try explaining to your wife that the last update might have hosed something. She'll want her PayTV and Netflix back the next day. So stable it is for me, you get the picture. However, if this goes well Artix may stay on this machine as a secondary option, replacing an unused Manjaro.
For my trials I went for the latest KDE Plasma and Cinnamon editions with runit. The nice thing is these are all live images so we can check them out first and then decide which one we like most. I had also tried the 20200125 OpenRC Cinnamon image previously and compared to the one using runit with the same date but did not notice any difference in boot times or otherwise. For various reasons runit it is for me.
Live mode
Booting from the media brings up a menu of several boot options. We can set timezone, keyboard layout and language independently from each other as these are not linked, handy for example if you want your interface language to be British English but have a different keyboard. We can then tell the boot loader which media to boot from - optical media or USB. In practice this does not make any difference. If you choose CD but a USB stick is inserted it will boot this one anyway with a short delay.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- The Artix boot screen
(full image size: 708kB, resolution: 1021x768 pixels)
At the bottom there's an empty line where we can edit boot options. We get a very short boot sequence showing the Artix logo and kernel in use and it's off to the desktop.
I tested both the Plasma and Cinnamon editions in live mode. Multimedia keys on my Dell laptop are supported. Sleep and waking up worked fine. The lock screen has a short timeout and if you are left wondering how to log in again the password is 'artix'.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- The live Cinnamon desktop
(full image size: 735kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Both desktops are almost identically set up, only differentiated slightly by their particular theming and menus. In Cinnamon we get the usual links to access computer, home directory and Trash (or Wastebasket in British English), plus some additional links named Configuration and one for the particular init system chosen. They are essentially pointing to different sections of the same file to help us get started, with tips on how to set hostname and keymap in the virtual console, and configure ALSA and user permissions (OpenRC only). Troubleshooting includes some useful hints, for example if one should encounter problems with D-Bus in the KDE Plasma edition. The Readme file shows where a log of the live session can be found. KDE is a bit cleaner and does not include desktop specific shortcuts.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- The KDE Plasma desktop
(full image size: 742kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
One thing to note is that if choosing a different language than English translations in Cinnamon are inconsistent. As an example, even though I chose German keyboard and language at the GRUB boot screen, links on the desktop remained in (American) English, as did parts of the menu relating to all applications, places and recent documents. Only the sub-menus of the software section were translated. The K menu was fully translated and not pre-populated with any favourites on the left.
The Plasma edition is also a bit more sparse with the wallpapers, with only the default Artix and Plasma 5.18 backgrounds included. The Cinnamon edition offers a large choice of Artix artwork plus several others. Interestingly, these were translated so it's a bit hit and miss on this front.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- Wallpaper selection in the Cinnamon edition
(full image size: 805kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Internal hard drives can easily be mounted by clicking on devices in the file manager.
This all looked good if you're not too fussy about the localization. The important thing is that the keyboard was set correctly to my chosen locale, in this case de_DE. I decided to proceed with the Cinnamon edition for further testing from hereon.
VirtualBox
First up was a test of the live session in VirtualBox. Mouse integration works. Ability to change the display resolution - check, but not in the resolution required for fullscreen. This persisted in the installed system. I need 1920x1080 and for full display and for some reason this wasn't possible so in order not to have to scroll in the VirtualBox window the highest practical resolution I could get was 1680x1050, or 1440x900 in windowed mode. I'm sure this can be fixed but it's not working right from the start.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- Installed in VirtualBox with a mix of German and English in the display settings
(full image size: 603kB, resolution: 1440x900 pixels)
I then proceeded to install Artix on a virtual disk which when finished gives us pretty much the same experience as in the live session, sans the helpful desktop shortcuts, so live mode is an accurate representation of the system, as it is supposed to be.
Installing Artix
In the KDE edition there's a shortcut to the installer on the desktop which can also be found under system settings. There seems to be a bug in that the installer shows up on the desktop only if the session has been started with the default US locale, at least it did not show up when selecting several other language settings I tried - German, Dutch, Polish and Czech.
Clicking on it opened a box that turns out to be the Calamares installer. In the Cinnamon edition however there was no obvious way to install the system and only after going through all applications in the menu was I able to locate the installer.
The installer starts in a window and walks us through the usual steps of choosing location and language, keyboard layout, partitioning scheme and setting up users. It also gives us a summary of our selections which really should be read before committing everything to disk. The customization module for various sets of software mentioned for an earlier iteration of the Artix installer seems to have been stripped out again.
For some reason Calamares insisted on installing Artix to the SD card left in the slot so be careful here in the partitioning phase. Worse, even after designating several partitions on my sda drive with mount points to Artix it still chose my SD card to install the boot loader on. As this entry is right at the bottom it is easy to overlook and I had almost missed it had I not read the summary provided before the install commenced for real.
The first boot up after finishing ended at a blinking cursor, with the hard drive light showing intermittent disk activity but apparently to no avail. I decided to pull the plug so to speak and booted again. The second time all went well and I was presented with the Cinnamon desktop.
Running Artix
Starting up, the distribution on another partition had been recognized and added to the GRUB menu.
The system booted from an SSD in a matter of seconds, shutdown time was incredibly fast and not even worth mentioning. Every interaction just felt incredibly fast and light. The main thing I noticed was that the Cinnamon environment was not localised or translated at all, just like in live mode, except parts of the menu.
A desktop notification let me know that wireless networks were available. Network manager is in use and after entering my credentials I was off to a good start. Despite the wallpapers, theming is not Artix's strong side. The default Artix-dark theme is a bit plasticky. A few nice Matefaenza icons are included but not used by default, which immediately give it a bit of a Mint flair. Luckily Cinnamon's themes panel makes downloading additional themes easy as pie after a quick refresh.
The entire fresh install used about 4.2GB drive space and htop showed 550MB of memory in use. As noted in the introduction, the project aims at not including too much software to start with. You get the control panel and tools of the desktop environment, the Nemo file manager, the Atril document viewer, a screenshot tool, a picture viewer, MPV for playing videos and Midori as browser (Falkon with the Plasma desktop). We can add from here but there is no graphical package manager. Using "sudo pacman -Syu" we can update the system. Having used the last stable image from February 2020 there were 146 packages to the tune of 245MB to download, not really too much given that nearly five months have passed.
The entire update process took less than two minutes on a 10MB/s connection, including the automated running of build hooks. Unfortunately, upon reboot a problem already encountered at the first boot persisted, namely going into a blank screen, no cursor this time. Shutting down and rebooting the desktop came up as normal and the issue did not crop up again during subsequent smaller updates.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- Checking out software repositories with Pamac
(full image size: 269kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Time to add more applications. Several repositories have already been added for us. The more interesting ones for a broader choice are probably Extra and Community, and we could also add the AUR from Arch Linux. For the graphical package manager I tried Octopi and Pamac. Octopi requires gksu which was unavailable. Pamac works well but requires a lot of scrolling as it always shows installed packages first. For this reason I would recommend staying with pacman at the command line. If you want to use Pamac however, it provides easy access to the Arch User Repository with its contributed build scripts which needs to be enabled in settings and it also adds an update notification to the system tray. This makes keeping track just as convenient as some of the major distributions.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- The settings panel and red update notification
(full image size: 406kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
I was able to install the latest Kodi from the official repositories (be sure to choose the kodi-x11 package), the client for my chosen VPN and the Brave browser from AUR so my requirements were met. There's also a link to the Brave package from the contributor of the build script for those who don't want or cannot spend a lot of time compiling. Overall this and the efficiency and pure speed of package management made me quite happy to be using Artix.
Artix Linux 20200214 -- Watching an old video file in MPV
(full image size: 758kB, resolution: 1280x800 pixels)
Multimedia codecs seem to be onboard from the start as I was able to watch several video formats.
Resources
After a few days running the system on and off I noticed that the battery drained rather qickly when compared to my other install on this machine and set about to investigate. Running the 5.7.8 kernel CPU usage was intense, consistently using around 50% across both cores with no other applications open. This meant with 1 hour 40 minutes the battery lasted less than half as long as with my other system.
Conclusion
I really like Artix because it is providing us with a fine line-up of ready-made images of various desktops combined with a choice of several alternative and probably underused init systems. It even introduced me to one I had not heard about, s6, and made me look more into the pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses of the different ones available. If these environments are not to your liking, there's always the minimal base install to build from the ground up.
Former Arch users who did not like the move to systemd will enjoy Artix, as will new users with a basic level of understanding and knowledge of what applications are available they would like to install. Anybody already experienced with the pacman syntax of updating and installing applications should be comfortable with it and not have much of a learning curve.
If you are looking for a fully localized system, at least with Cinnamon, there is additional work to do. Turns out the cinnamon-translations package is needed. Even after this though the menu entry for Advanced Network Configuration pointing to Network Manager stubbornly remains. Perhaps this package could in future be included just to bring the desktop experience up to par with KDE Plasma where out of the box localization does not seem to be a problem. I also made the observation that the Cinnamon desktop is slightly less responsive on the same machine than my Debian 10 Plasma instance on another partition. Opening the Nemo file manager takes a good 3-4 seconds on an SSD and battery drain is a concern.
Artix also has a wiki, a mailing list and a forum and the team can be contacted via IRC channel. This being essentially Arch Linux the parent distro's wiki can also be consulted. This means there is a great deal of documentation and support available for those willing to look and read, which is a pre-requisite with this type of distribution. If you are looking for a fully localized system, at least with Cinnamon, there is additional work to do. It also pays to keep an eye on the Artix home page. Just like with Arch, news, arising issues and changes that require manual intervention are posted here so one is not caught out by a potentially troublesome update. Happy camping!
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Hardware used in this review:
- Dell Latitude E4300, 13.3" notebook display 1280x800 (WXGA) used with external monitor
- 6GiB DDR3 RAM
- 250GB Samsung SSD 860 EVO,
- Intel Centrino Core2Duo 9300 @ 1.6GHz (up to 2.26 with Boost)
- 1066MHz FSB, USB 2.0
- Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset integrated graphics
- Intel Corporation Ultimate N WiFi Link 5300 wireless
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To get an idea of the features, pros and cons of each of these you might consult this overview, for example, and check out the Gentoo and Arch wikis. You can hop directly to this comparison.
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Visitor supplied rating
Artix Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.2/10 from 158 review(s).
Have you used Artix Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
IPFire shares security tips, Fedora offers guide for switching from scp to rsync, Manjaro user tests kernel power consumption
The IPFire team develops a distribution focused on security, and network security in particular. Since the software we run is only ever a small part of the security puzzle, the IPFire team has begun publishing a series of guides to keeping computers and networks secure. "When it comes to IT security, you will need to rely on the users sooner or later - think about being lured to enable macros in malicious MS-Office documents. This is why raising security awareness of both administrators and users is the first step to a less insecure network. Hence this post focuses on non-technical aspects and preemptive information security (sometimes abbreviated as "infosec") considerations." The first article gives a good overview of important tips to consider when trying to secure a computer network, whether it is at home or in an office.
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The scp secure copy program is a widely used method to transfer files between computers. However, due to some limitations and weaknesses in the scp protocol, the developers have suggested people should migrate to other methods of transferring files, such as the sftp (secure file transfer protocol) and rsync synchronization software. Fedora Magazine has published a guide on how to use rsync along with a comparison of how to perform similar tasks using both scp and rsync. "As part of the 8.0 pre-release announcement, the OpenSSH project stated that they consider the scp protocol outdated, inflexible, and not readily fixed. They then go on to recommend the use of sftp or rsync for file transfer instead. Many users grew up on the scp command, however, are not familiar with rsync." Though the guide is published on Fedora Magazine, it should be applicable across all Linux and BSD platforms.
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A member of the Manjaro Linux community was curious about benefits (or drawbacks) to using different versions of the Linux kernel with regards to power consumption. After doing some experiments with a Dell XPS 13 laptop, the results were posted. Power consumption was shown to be greatly reduced (from about 6.09 watts down to 3.47 watts) on a recent development snapshot of the kernel and the results were posted on Reddit. "I tried as soon as I had some spare time available to do a simple comparison between the idle power consumption with the actual 5.4 stable kernel (5.4.52-1-MANJARO) and the 5.8rc5 experimental kernel, as described in the aforementioned post. Both the tests were taken 5 minutes after a cold boot, at around 95% of battery charge. In both tests the laptop (Dell XPS 13 9343) was connected to a WiFi network, no external monitors attached, 50% brightness, TLP in battery mode."
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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) |
Updating a rolling release versus a fixed release distribution
Catching-up asks: Sometimes I see people saying that they're still on older versions of a particular distro, like say CentOS 7 or Debian 8. How do they do this? How are they updating the programs installed but not the operating system itself? Because if I were to install, say, Debian 9 and then updated it, wouldn't it just jump to 10?
DistroWatch answers: When it comes to updating the software included in Linux distributions there are two main approaches developers can take. The first is called a "rolling release" model. When new versions of applications become available in a rolling release distribution the new versions replace the old versions of software. This causes the whole operating system to be gradually updated over time as old components are replaced with new ones. Users who regularly install updates are continually upgrading their operating system to its latest version.
In other words, if you installed a rolling distribution such as Manjaro Linux 19.0 and downloaded all the available updates for it, you would effectively be running Manjaro Linux 20.0.
The second approach to upgrading software in a Linux distribution is called a "fixed release". In a fixed release, the included software is "frozen" at the time the distribution is published. New versions of applications are not introduced (with some very rare exceptions). When problems are found in applications and a new version released the distribution's developers do not package up the new version of the application. Instead they take just the fixed piece of code and apply it to their existing, older version of the software. They "patch" their old version of an application to fix problems, but they do not package up an entire new version. This means, when the user installs new updates, they are getting security fixes for old problems, but not getting new versions of software or new features.
If you were to install Debian 9 and install all of its software updates, what you would end up with is still Debian 9, with some critical problems fixed. Your software packages would not be upgraded to match the ones available in Debian 10.
People often run rolling release distributions when they want to stay up to date with the latest software releases and enjoy a steady stream of new features. Fixed release distributions, which usually only update their software with security fixes, do not change much over time and are better suited for environments where the operating system needs to be static and predictable.
To make matters slightly more confusing, many fixed release distributions can perform a special kind of upgrade which jumps the operating system from one major version to the next. Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu users, to name a few, have the option of jumping from one major version to the next. This is not the default behaviour when installing updates on any of these distributions, but it is an option people can use if they wish to run newer versions of their fixed release operating system without performing a fresh install from scratch.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
GeckoLinux 152
GeckoLinux is a desktop-oriented distribution based on openSUSE. The project's latest version includes updated desktop environments and enables several third-party software repositories. "GeckoLinux continues to be focused on eliminating pain points and polishing its unique out-of-the-box configuration on top of the stable and flexible openSUSE base. Proprietary media formats play out of the box, and additional user-installed multimedia applications work automatically with restricted media codecs thanks to the prioritized inclusion of the Packman repository. Google and Skype repositories are also configured out-of-the-box for optional installation by the user of proprietary applications from those vendors. Third-party RPM packages can be easily installed using the graphical YaST package manager. GeckoLinux uses the Calamares system installer at version 3.2.15, providing easy but powerful options for reliable installation of the live system. A variety of GeckoLinux ISO spins are available with polished desktop environments to suit every need and preference. Each spin contains a well curated selection of preinstalled applications appropriate for the particular desktop environment. Current highlights include: Cinnamon 4.4.8; MATE 1.24.0; Plasma 5.18.5 / KDE applications 20.04; Xfce 4.14; GNOME 3.34.4; LXQt 0.14.1." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement.
SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP2
The SUSE team has announced the release of a new service pack (SP) for SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE). The new update, SUSE Linux Enterprise 15 SP2, offers security improvements, techniques to reduce downtime, and improvements to ARM platforms. "Greater security for federal government and public sector organizations as well as others running high-security environments with FIPS 140-2 certification-ready packages. Ensure protection against outsider threats for IBM Z installations with support for IBM Secure Execution and Secure Boot. Support for a complete and secure offline installation for air-gapped deployments, which are typical for military and healthcare environments. Protect data at rest without additional software cost using cryptctl. Local and Remote disk encryption can be setup for all on-premises, cloud and hybrid installations along with enterprise key management KMIP standard. Increase Linux system uptime by up to 12 months while maintaining highest security standards with SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching, now also available for IBM Z and LinuxONE." Further details can be found in the company's release announcement.
REMnux 7
Lenny Zeltser has announced the release of REMnux 7, a major update of the project's Ubuntu-based distribution with a toolkit for reverse-engineering and analysing malicious software. The new version continues to be delivered as an OVA virtual appliance, but is now based on Ubuntu 18.04: "Ten years after the initial release of REMnux, I'm thrilled to announce that REMnux version 7 is now available. This Linux distribution for malware analysis includes hundreds of new and classic tools for examining executables, documents, scripts, and other forms of malicious code. What's new in REMnux 7? Almost everything! All the tools have been refreshed, some have been retired, and many new ones have been added to the distro. Browse the expanded, categorized listing of the tools to get a sense for what you can do with REMnux and learn about the tools' authors. For a quick glance, check out the one-page summary. Revamped REMnux documentation provides an extensive, categorized listing of the installed malware analysis tools, and lists their authors, websites, and license details. REMnux has been fully rebuilt to help stay up-to-date with the rapid pace of today's tool releases. To achieve this, the distro now uses SaltStack behind the scenes for automating the installation and configuration of software."
REMnux 7 -- Running the GNOME desktop
(full image size: 33kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
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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: 2,078
- Total data uploaded: 32.8TB
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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) |
Open source alternatives to Linux
When it comes to open source operating systems, GNU/Linux distributions tend to attract the most attention. The Linux kernel is used in billions of mobile devices, millions of desktop and server systems, and powers most of the world's top super computers. However, there are many other (often less talked about) open source operating systems in the world. Some are widely used behind the scenes in businesses, such as FreeBSD, others are providing lightweight desktop experiences the way Haiku does, while still others are embedded in places we might not expect, the way MINIX is. We would like to know if you run any non-Linux open source systems. Let us know which ones in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on purchasing support for LibreOffice in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Open source alternatives to Linux
| I run one or more BSDs: | 319 (17%) |
| I run Haiku: | 46 (2%) |
| I run MINIX: | 8 (0%) |
| I run ReactOS: | 34 (2%) |
| I run all of the above: | 19 (1%) |
| I run some of the above: | 92 (5%) |
| I run another alternative: | 54 (3%) |
| I do not run any non-Linux open source OS: | 1272 (66%) |
| I do not run any open source OS: | 69 (4%) |
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|
| Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
Distributions added to waiting list
- Laxer OS. Laxer OS is a rolling-release platform based on Arch Linux. The distribution ships with the GNOME desktop environment.
- AlterLinux is a Japanese distribution based on Arch Linux. The project uses the ZEN Linux kernel and is available in three desktop editions: KDE Plasma, LXDE, and Xfce.
- Serene Linux. Serene Linux is an Ubuntu-based distribution from Japan that strives to run on low-resource computers.
- RoshanTech POS OS. RoshanTech POS OS is a point-of-sale platform based on Linux Mint which uses web-based technology for its user interface.
- dahliaOS. dahliaOS is a minimal Linux distribution featuring a custom desktop environment called Pangolin. The graphical user interface is constructed using Google's Flutter toolkit.
- LudoOS. LudoOS is an Ubuntu-based distribution that runs the Pantheon desktop.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 3 August 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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TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
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| 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 |
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