 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 884, 21 September 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 38th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
A lot of the time we focus on how minimal Linux distributions can be. We like to explore how Linux can be squeezed into old 32-bit computers, Raspberry Pi machines, and low-end mobile devices. While there are many distributions which focus on minimalism, there are not many which strive to make the most out of higher-end, modern computers. Garuda Linux is a rare exception which strives for a modern look, uses an advanced filesystem, and provides lots of features out of the box. Our Feature Story this week gives a quick look at Garuda's KDE Plasma and LXQt editions. Regardless of which distribution you run, there are a lot of different ways to get a copy of Linux install media. Approaches vary from direct downloads to torrents to physical media. Let us know how you acquired your latest distribution in our Opinion Poll. Then, in our News section, we talk about DragonFly BSD developers making it easier to customize new installations with a first-boot flag and Project Trident improving the handling of removable media. We also report on Gentoo's new kernel packages for users who want to experience different kernel flavours. In our Questions and Answers column we discuss setting up network services, such as Samba shares, in a virtual machine. 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: Garuda Linux 200817
- News: DragonFly BSD offers first-boot tool, Project Trident makes it easier to access removable media, Gentoo rolls out new kernel ports
- Questions and answers: Tips for setting up a Samba server in a virtual machine
- Released last week: FuryBSD 20200907, IPFire 2.25 Core 149, 4MLinux 34.0
- Torrent corner: 4MLinux, FuryBSD, IPFire, KDE neon, Live Raizo, PCLinuxOS, Puppy
- Upcoming releases: Tails 4.11, FreeBSD 12.2-BETA3
- Opinion poll: Most recent ISO download method
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (14MB) and MP3 (11MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Garuda Linux 200817
One of the more recent additions to the DistroWatch database is Garuda Linux, an Arch-based distribution that offers several enticing features. By default Garuda is intended to be run on the Btr file system, which offers all sorts of attractive features such as multi-disk storage volumes and snapshots. Btrfs has been paired with Timeshift on Garuda and the system is reported to take automatic snapshots before each package upgrade, making the system much easier to recover. I especially like the idea of having automated filesystem snapshots on a rolling release distribution such as Arch. The openSUSE Tumbleweed rolling release has offered automatic snapshots of the system prior to upgrades for a while now and it is nice to see this feature catching on in other projects.
The Garuda distribution ships with the Calamares system installer to make setting up the operating system easier. We are also given a desktop tool for managing drivers and Garuda's website mentions proprietary NVIDIA video drivers are optionally available. Rounding out some of the key features, Garuda ships with the Zen Linux kernel with the goal of providing better desktop performance.
The download page of the Garuda website offers many options. There are several desktop editions we can select, including Deepin, GNOME, i3, KDE Plasma, LXQt, and Xfce. These editions are further divided into Ultimate and Lite editions. The difference between Lite and Ultimate is explained:
Ultimate editions are made for having all the right tools needed to get gaming started on Linux, out of the box. For Ultimate editions we recommend a minimum of 6GB of RAM and 20GB of storage space. Lite editions are made for having only minimal packages preinstalled, out of the box. So you can customize it later how you want, the choice is yours to make. For Lite editions we recommend a minimum of 3GB of RAM and 10GB of storage space.
I decided to stick to the lighter side of things. I began by downloading the KDE Plasma Lite edition (a 2.2GB download) and later tried the LXQt Lite edition for comparison. The LXQt edition was a 2.0GB download.
The live media for the KDE Plasma edition boots to a graphical login screen where we can sign in as either a user called "garuda" or using a guest account. The password for the former is "garuda". The LXQt edition, in contrast, boots directly into a desktop session, skipping the login screen. Both editions display a panel across the top of the desktop, a launcher dock at the bottom, and a Conky status panel to the right of the screen. An icon on the desktop is available to launch the Calamares installer.
Shortly after the live session starts a welcome window appears. The welcome window provides several tabs for accessing information, adjusting features, and toggling items on/off. Most of the welcome window's options look to be best suited to fine-tuning an installed copy of the distribution. However, there are some launchers on the first tab for accessing on-line resources and support which may be helpful.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 742kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
While I was using the live LXQt edition, once I got signed in, a terminal window would appear on the desktop and display a series of package database errors before showing a prompt. The errors appear to indicate the package manager has not yet been synchronized with the distribution's software repositories.
Installing
Both editions of Garuda use the Calamares graphical installer to set up the operating system. Calamares does a good job of helping us select our language, keyboard layout, and time zone. The installer offers two basic partitioning options, assuming we are not setting up Garuda alongside another distribution. We can choose to manually partition the disk and are given a friendly, graphical partition editor to accomplish this. Alternatively we can take the guided partitioning approach which sets up Garuda on a Btrfs volume. We have three additional options when taking the guided option. We can set up the distribution without swap space, taking over the entire disk for the root filesystem. The other two options are "swap with hibernate" and "swap without hibernate". These set up a Btrfs volume and a swap partition. The former sets up a larger swap space to allow memory to be backed up to swap for laptop hibernation while the "without hibernate" still sets up swap space, just with a smaller partition.
The installer then asks us to make a user account and set an administrative password. Then Calamares unpacks its files and copies Garuda to our hard drive. I had good luck when doing this with the KDE Plasma edition, the installer completed both times without incident. The LXQt edition kept locking up. Three times Calamares locked up and twice took the desktop down with it, forcing a hard restart. The third time, after a few minutes, Calamares resumed its work, though stalled again a few minutes later for a period.
Early impressions
Both editions of the distribution booted to a graphical login screen. By default the login screen was set to sign me into the guest account rather than my regular user account. I'm not sure if this is because the guest account, which requires no password, gets preference or if it's a case of accounts being sorted in alphabetical order.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- The LXQt desktop, applications menu, and sample notification
(full image size: 826kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
While the LXQt desktop loaded in a reasonable amount of time, Plasma took about a minute to load and display the panel, Conky information, and dock. Sometimes, when running Plasma, the welcome window would be transparent which made it very difficult to read text in the window. I also noticed that sometimes the Plasma dock and top panel would disappear shortly after logging in, making it hard to navigate the desktop. Signing out and logging back into my account would correct this issue. These issues did not appear in the LXQt session.
Shortly after signing into my account a notification appeared letting me know software updates were available. Clicking the corresponding icon in the system tray will open the software manager, which I will discuss later, and display a list of available updates.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- Displaying available software updates
(full image size: 95kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
A few other programs load when we sign in, including the Xtreme Download Manager which appears to be a Java application. A drop-down virtual terminal also runs and is displayed at login. These, along with the Conky panel and a few notifications about connecting to available wireless networks made for a busy desktop.
Included software
The software installed for us varies a bit from one edition to the next. Firefox appears consistently across both editions, along with the Thunderbird e-mail client. Java is present on both editions, along with the GNU Compiler Collection and Timeshift. Both editions have some small utilities such as a text editor and terminal. The systemd suite provides init and both editions run version 5.8.1 of the Linux kernel.
Neither Lite edition ships with LibreOffice, while both offer a bittorrent client along with a settings panel. Apart from the above items, we also have access to a drop-down terminal that loads by default. The default shell is zsh instead of the more common bash.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- Setting up snapshots with Timeshift
(full image size: 731kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
I ran into a few quirks with the display of windows. Some windows, particularly the terminal, would display with transparent backgrounds. This makes it difficult to read text. A few windows also started with the "keep above others" attribute set, which makes it impossible to switch to another window and have it appear in front. This is easy to turn off, but I don't recall ever running into this as default behaviour before. There was also a weird effect where windows would sometimes maximize when moving them, even when not pushing them to the edge of the screen. Clicking the maximize/restore button had no effect meaning I had to manually shrink the window. This happened semi-regularly and made it hard to work with two windows side-by-side.
Hardware
I began by playing with Garuda in a VirtualBox environment. This started out well, with the desktop resizing dynamically inside the host window. However, both editions of the distribution tended to be slow to respond, especially the Plasma edition. In the virtual machine the system was bogged down by visual effects, compositing, file search indexing, and extra start-up services. Disabling these many extras greatly improved the responsiveness of the desktops, though Plasma still lagged a little in the virtual machine. Unfortunately, disabling these extras caused the top panel (along with the application menu and system tray) to disappear. I had to manually re-add the panel after disabling the extra services and compositing.
On my laptop both desktops were noticeably more responsive. The LXQt session was pretty quick, even, though Plasma was still just providing average performance. Both editions used more than the usual amount of RAM. The Plasma edition used 1.1GB of memory according to the free command and 1.5GB according to Conky. The LXQt edition used 700MB according to free and 1.0GB according to Conky. I'm not sure why none of the stats displayed by Conky, apart from the total RAM available, matched what free was showing, but there were always large discrepancies. Regardless of which tool was used, this level of RAM consumption on the Lite editions was about double what I see when using these same desktop environments on other Linux distributions.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- The LXQt settings panel
(full image size: 317kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
More concerning was the failure of Garuda to boot sometimes. About one in every four boots would fail with the system giving up after the kernel loaded, but before systemd began launching services. Restarting the computer would work around the issue and bring me back to the login page. This is an unusual problem as I rarely find Linux distributions inconsistent in whether they boot. Some fail due to driver or start-up service issues, but those do so each time, while Garuda was unpredictable.
One thing in the distribution's favour, in my opinion, is that while it turns on a lot of bells and whistles, it mutes audio by default. I appreciate a quiet computer. The silence from my speakers made an unusual contrast to the many pop-up notifications, wobbly windows, and status updates on my screen.
Software management
Garuda uses a graphical software manager which is divided into three tabs. The first tab shows us categories of available software in the repositories. The second tab displays, and optionally removes, installed software. The final tab lists available software updates and gives us a chance to select which items we want to download. When we click the update notification icon in the system tray this software manager opens and displays the third tab.
Garuda Linux 200817 -- Trying to find new applications in the software centre
(full image size: 39kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The update tab and the tab showing installed items worked for me without any problems. However, the first tab showing categories of available software, did not work at all. Clicking any of the categories displayed no available items. I tried refreshing the package database and confirmed I could see available updates, but no new items. I could also use the pacman command line package manager to install new software, but the graphical software manager was unable to show any available items.
Conclusions
Garuda Linux is a rare case where I like all of the items in the advertised feature list - Zen Linux kernel, Btrfs, automated snapshots, up to date software, Lite and more full-featured editions - while finding the implementation of the distribution entirely ill-suited to my particular needs. Things got off to a rocky start with the LXQt edition repeatedly failing to install and locking up the machine in the process. I did get it to work eventually, though not through any change in my approach, just through sheer stubbornness and trying repeatedly. The KDE Plasma edition thankfully did not have this problem. (I verified the checksums for the install media of both editions.)
Once they were up and running, I ran into a series of other problems. For one, the distribution occasionally failed to boot which is a serious issue. When it did boot, the KDE session often failed to load all of its desktop components. Desktop performance on physical hardware was a bit below average, mostly due to all the effects, compositing, and file indexing going on in the background. When run in a virtual machine the KDE Plasma edition was unusable for all practical purposes while the LXQt edition was slow, but functional.
Both editions, and I remind our gentle readers that I was running the Lite editions, used about twice as much RAM as the same desktops consume on virtually every other distribution I have tried. That is based on the statistics from free while Conky suggests Garuda is even heavier, which struck me as unfortunate given how much focus the project claims to give to performance and efficiency.
I liked that Garuda ships with Btrfs as the default filesystem and pairs this with Timeshift to take periodic snapshots. I think this is a good move forward and an especially useful tool to have when running a rolling release distribution where packages tend to change quickly. I give the developers full credit for taking this initiative where most distributions, openSUSE aside, have avoided this useful feature.
One final, major concern was with how busy the desktops of both editions were. The windows wobble when moved, some get stuck in maximized mode, the transparent terminals make them impractical for work. The Conky panel is constantly updating. About once every 30 seconds a notification would appear letting me know my network connection could not be detected, always immediately followed by another pop-up saying it was working. (Network traffic and web browsing never suffered from this reported drop and re-connect pattern.) All of these features can be removed, but it took about half an hour to strip away everything I did not want distracting me and bogging down the CPU. Again, I stress this was when using the Lite editions of Garuda.
To me it seems Garuda is appealing to people who want all of the new, shiny features. If you want the latest versions of packages, if you like desktop eye candy, if you want constant updates, and status reports, if you want every switch toggled to the "on" position, if you like transparency effects and wiggly windows, then Garuda is probably ideal. I found both editions too distracting and too slow, but for people who like to take advantage of the flashy effects and cutting edge options, then I think Garuda may be a good match.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Garuda Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.4/10 from 245 review(s).
Have you used Garuda Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
DragonFly BSD offers first-boot tool, Project Trident makes it easier to access removable media, Gentoo rolls out new kernel ports
People who wish to customize the DragonFly BSD operating system have a new tool on their workbench. The project has introduced a first-boot flag which allows a program or script to be run once, and only once, the first time the operating system is booted following installation. "You can now add something to run on first boot after install, only, on DragonFly. This is probably of most use to you if you are building a custom image."
* * * * *
The Project Trident project has introduced a few new tools to the operating system's Void-based distribution. In particular, Trident users will have easier access to removable device storage. "[New] trident-automount: This is a backend daemon for Void Linux systems which monitors udev events and generates XDG desktop shortcuts for removable devices within the '/media' directory. For browsing file-storage devices, trident-automount will automatically configure some autofs rules which allow these devices to be dynamically browsed via the '/browse/[devicename]' directories. The XDG shortcuts that trident-automount generates will automatically check/adjust the shortcuts based upon the type of device/filesystem." Further information on this and other project updates can be found in this blog post.
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The Gentoo distribution has rolled out a new set of three kernel packages that can be installed through the project's software manager. "The Gentoo Distribution Kernel project is excited to announce that our new Linux Kernel packages are ready for a wide audience! The project aims to create a better Linux Kernel maintenance experience by providing both ebuilds that can be used to configure, compile, and install kernel entirely through the package manager as well as prebuilt binary kernels. We are currently shipping three kernel packages: sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel - providing a kernel with genpatches applied, built using the package manager using either distribution default or custom configuration; sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin - prebuilt version of gentoo-kernel that can be used to save time on compiling; sys-kernel/vanilla-kernel - providing a vanilla (unmodified) upstream kernel." The new packages are intended to make kernel upgrades easier for users. Further details can be found in the project's announcement.
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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) |
Tips for setting up a Samba server in a virtual machine
Hoping-to-share asks: Is it possible to create a Samba server as a VM? If so, then which distro do you recommend?
DistroWatch answers: Yes, it is possible to set up a Samba server in a virtual machine. Pretty much any server or network service can be created in a virtual environment, which is great for testing software and/or copying the service to another machine.
As for which distribution you might want to use, most Linux distributions include Samba packages. My suggestion, if this is your first time setting up Samba, is to use a stable, mainstream distribution. Projects like CentOS, Ubuntu, and openSUSE have static packages that won't change on you and surprise you during an upgrade. These projects also have a lot of documentation. In addition, these distributions have a lot of users, meaning if you run into a problem, chances are someone else had the same problem and has explained how to fix it on your distribution's forum.
The one catch to setting up network services in a virtual machine is that you need to make sure other computers on the network can "see" the virtual machine and its network ports. This typically means you are going to want to set up bridged networking for the virtual machine and, depending on your host operating system, you may need to adjust your host's firewall so that other computers can communicate with the guest operating system. Often times, when trouble-shooting network services, it turns out the firewall (on either the host or guest operating system) was enabled and blocking incoming connections so it can be helpful to open (or, in some circumstances, even disable) the firewall when setting up new services. Remember to re-enable the firewall when you are done setting up Samba to avoid exposing your other network ports.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
FuryBSD 20200907
Joe Maloney has announced the availability of a new set of releases by FuryBSD, a FreeBSD-based desktop-oriented operating system featuring the Xfce and KDE Plasma desktops. The images continue to be labelled as "12.1" (to indicate that they are based on FreeBSD 12.1), but they also include a datestamp to differentiate them from any previous FuryBSD 12.1 builds: "FuryBSD 2020-Q3 - the world's first OpenZFS-based live image. In order to provide the most reliable experience possible and while preserving integrity of the system, the live CD now leverages ZFS compression, replication, memory file systems and reroot. Changes since 2020-Q2: 12.1-RELEASE-p9; X.Org 1.20.8, NVIDIA driver 440.100, Xfce 4.14, Firefox 79.0; added check for 4GB minimum system memory to boot the image; replaced UnionFS with compressed ZFS memdisk; added VMSVGA support for VirtualBox 6; replaced Poudriere image with BSDinstall to fix freebsd-update issues after image assembly...." Here is the complete release announcement.
FuryBSD 20200907 -- Running the Xfce desktop
(full image size: 3.3MB, resolution: 2560x1440 pixels)
IPFire 2.25 Core 149
IPFire is a Linux-based distribution for network appliances such as routers and firewalls. The project's latest release is IPFire 2.25 Core Update 149 which focuses on performance improvements. "IPFire is based on glibc 2.32, the standard library for all C programs, and GCC 10.2, the GNU Compiler Collection. Both bring various bug fixes and improvements. The most notable change is that we have decided to remove a mitigation Spectre 2 which caused that user space programs in IPFire were running about 50% slower due to using a microcode feature which is called "retpoline". Those "return trampolines" disable the branch prediction engine in out-of-order processors which was considered to help with mitigating leaking any information from any unaccessible kernel space. This is however not as effective as thought and massively decreases performance in the user land which mainly affects features like our Intrusion Prevention System, Web Proxy and URL filter. We still use this mechanism to avoid leaking any kernel memory into the user space." Additional information can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
4MLinux 34.0
4MLinux is a miniature Linux distribution focusing on four capabilities: maintenance (as a system rescue live CD), multimedia (for playing video DVDs and other multimedia files), miniserver (using the inetd daemon), and mystery (providing several small Linux games). The project's latest stable release is 4MLinux 34.0. "The status of the 4MLinux 34.0 series has been changed to STABLE. Edit your documents with LibreOffice 7.0.1.2 and GNOME Office (AbiWord 3.0.4, GIMP 2.10.20, Gnumeric 1.12.47), share your files using DropBox 103.4.383, surf the Internet with Firefox 80.0.1 and Chromium 83.0.4103.116, send emails via Thunderbird 78.2.2, enjoy your music collection with Audacious 4.0.4, watch your favorite videos with VLC 3.0.11 and mpv 0.32.0, play games powered by Mesa 20.0.7 and Wine 5.14. You can also setup the 4MLinux LAMP Server (Linux 5.4.61, Apache 2.4.46, MariaDB 10.5.5, PHP 5.6.40 and PHP 7.4.9). Perl 5.30.2, Python 2.7.18, and Python 3.8.2 are also available." Further details may be found in the project's release announcement.
* * * * *
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: 2,143
- Total data uploaded: 33.8TB
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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) |
Most recent ISO download method
There are lots of different ways to gain access to live media and installation ISO files. There are a handful of direct download methods, torrents and other peer-to-peer file sharing tools, not to mention purchasing physical storage media. This week we would like to know what method you used to download your latest ISO file for a Linux distribution.
You can see the results of our previous poll on using Docker in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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How did you download your latest ISO?
| I used direct FTP: | 66 (4%) |
| I used direct HTTP: | 210 (12%) |
| I used direct HTTPS: | 789 (44%) |
| I used bittorrent: | 589 (33%) |
| I used another peer-to-peer method: | 25 (1%) |
| I used another direct download method: | 42 (2%) |
| I purchased physical media: | 6 (0%) |
| I received free physical media: | 5 (0%) |
| I used another method: | 10 (1%) |
| I do not remember: | 40 (2%) |
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| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 28 September 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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| Archives |
| • Issue 1100 (2024-12-09): Oreon 9.3, differences in speed, IPFire's new appliance, Fedora Asahi Remix gets new video drivers, openSUSE Leap Micro updated, Redox OS running Redox OS |
| • Issue 1099 (2024-12-02): AnduinOS 1.0.1, measuring RAM usage, SUSE continues rebranding efforts, UBports prepares for next major version, Murena offering non-NFC phone |
| • Issue 1098 (2024-11-25): Linux Lite 7.2, backing up specific folders, Murena and Fairphone partner in fair trade deal, Arch installer gets new text interface, Ubuntu security tool patched |
| • Issue 1097 (2024-11-18): Chimera Linux vs Chimera OS, choosing between AlmaLinux and Debian, Fedora elevates KDE spin to an edition, Fedora previews new installer, KDE testing its own distro, Qubes-style isolation coming to FreeBSD |
| • Issue 1096 (2024-11-11): Bazzite 40, Playtron OS Alpha 1, Tucana Linux 3.1, detecting Screen sessions, Redox imports COSMIC software centre, FreeBSD booting on the PinePhone Pro, LXQt supports Wayland window managers |
| • Issue 1095 (2024-11-04): Fedora 41 Kinoite, transferring applications between computers, openSUSE Tumbleweed receives multiple upgrades, Ubuntu testing compiler optimizations, Mint partners with Framework |
| • Issue 1094 (2024-10-28): DebLight OS 1, backing up crontab, AlmaLinux introduces Litten branch, openSUSE unveils refreshed look, Ubuntu turns 20
| | • Issue 1093 (2024-10-21): Kubuntu 24.10, atomic vs immutable distributions, Debian upgrading Perl packages, UBports adding VoLTE support, Android to gain native GNU/Linux application support |
| • Issue 1092 (2024-10-14): FunOS 24.04.1, a home directory inside a file, work starts of openSUSE Leap 16.0, improvements in Haiku, KDE neon upgrades its base |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
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| Random Distribution | 
How-Tux
How-Tux was a Slackware-based, desktop-oriented Linux distribution with the installer translated into Italian and most applications localised for the benefit of Italian speakers. Compared to Slackware, How-Tux was enhanced by GWARE GNOME, OpenOffice.org, and several extra multimedia and graphics applications.
Status: Discontinued
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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