 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 891, 9 November 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 45th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
How people organize their desktop environments is a very personal choice. Some people like a screen full of icons, others want a blank desktop that only holds windows. Some people like lots of status updates and notifications while others want a quiet space without distractions. In our Questions and Answers section this week we talk about one way to organize application windows that sorts them into tabs. What do you think of Material Shell and its tab-like approach to windows? Let us know your thoughts in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about Arch Linux gaining accessibility options on the distribution's install media along with an enterprising user getting the Linux build of Chrome running on FreeBSD. We also report on CentOS 6 nearing the end of its supported life. First though we share a review of Fedora 33, a fresh new release that features cutting edge hardware support and version 3.38 of the GNOME desktop. Joshua Allen Holm shares his opinions on the latest version of Fedora. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of this past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Fedora 33 Workstation
- News: Arch install media gains accessibility options, FreeBSD can run Linux build of Chrome, CentOS warns version 6 nearing end of life
- Questions and answers: Treating windows like tabs
- Released last week: ArchBang Linux 0111, Emmabuntus DE3-1.03, UBports 16.04 OTA-14
- Torrent corner: Absolute, ArchBang, Archlabs, Arch Linux, Bluestar, Emmabuntus, LibreELEC, Pardus, SparkyLinux, Voyager Live
- Opinion poll: What do you think of Material Shell?
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (11MB) and MP3 (8MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Joshua Allen Holm) |
Fedora 33 Workstation
In late October, the Fedora project released Fedora 33 in several different versions. Workstation, Server, and IoT (Internet of Things) are the three core releases. Fedora CoreOS and Fedora Silverblue are considered emerging editions. There are also several spins and variants that feature alternate desktop environments or are tuned to a specific task. I will be focusing on Fedora 33 Workstation for this review.
Fedora 33 Workstation introduces two interesting new features: Btrfs as the default file system format and swap on zRAM, the later of which was already in use in Fedora IoT. The rest of the updates include the usual refresh and polish of everything. Fedora 33 Workstation ships with version 5.8 of the Linux kernel, GNOME 3.38, and all the various applications and development tools are the latest versions.
Installing Fedora 33 Workstation
I began by copying the Fedora 33 Workstation image to a flash drive and rebooting my computer. The release notes mentioned that there might be a problem with Secure Boot, but I left Secure Boot enabled to see if I would have problems, which I did. I then reset my computer to use the factory keys and then I could successfully boot Fedora 33's live image with Secure Boot enabled.
Fedora 33 -- Live desktop with Welcome to Fedora window
(full image size: 2.4MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Secure boot issue sorted, the system quickly booted to a live desktop environment with a Try or Install dialog. I selected the Try option so I could look around first. Once I was done looking through the various aspects of the GNOME 3.38 desktop environment to see what had changed, I started the Anaconda installer to begin installing Fedora 33.
Fedora 33 -- Anaconda installer
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In Fedora 33, Anaconda handles only part of the installation experience, so there are very few options available. Keyboard, Time & Date, and Installation Destination are the only three things the user can adjust at this stage of the installation. Of those three, Installation Destination is the only one that has any real complexity. However, for the purposes of this review, I selected the automatic partitioning option in order to try Fedora 33's new Btrfs defaults.
Fedora 33 -- Initial setup wizard
(full image size: 1.8MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
To complete the installation process, I rebooted the computer. When the desktop environment loaded for the first time, GNOME's Initial Setup wizard ran to complete the installation. There were a few privacy options to configure related to location services and automatic problem reporting. Then the setup wizard created a new user, which has administrative privileges, and set the password for that user. There is no prompt to configure a root password, so it is not possible to log in as root unless the user sets a password for that account later.
Fedora 33 -- Welcome tour
(full image size: 1.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
After the setup process has completed, a much improved version of the GNOME Welcome Tour pops up. This tour shows the basics of the GNOME environment like the Activities overview and the notification area. After viewing the tour, I was finally ready to start exploring Fedora 33's GNOME 3.38 desktop.
Fedora 33's GNOME desktop
As much as I wanted to try out the various enhancements to GNOME, the first thing I did was open the Disks applications and some command line utilities to see what the new Btrfs partition scheme looked like. I was pleased to see that I would no longer have to deal with the frustratingly small home partition that I would get stuck with when using the default options in previous Fedora versions. I would still have to deal with making sure not to fill up a tiny 64GB drive, but I could now download large ISOs without running out space in a partition despite having a large amount of free space available on the drive. There are not any tightly integrated graphical utilities to take advantage of Btrfs's advanced features, but just the switch to the Btrfs is a massive quality of life improvement over Fedora's old default partition scheme for me.
Fedora 33 -- GNOME desktop showing applications
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Exploring the rest of the GNOME desktop, I found a familiar experience, but with a few new enhancements. It is now possible to manually sort the applications displayed in listing of installed applications. However, this change makes manual sorting necessary if you want to have the applications alphabetized. I have always sorted the applications I add to the dock by task (web browser & e-mail client, office applications, IDEs, and miscellaneous utilities), but I always liked having the full list of applications alphabetized. Now, every single time I install a new application, I need to manually drag it into alphabetical order. Even the Utilities application group that is created by default does not have the items in it alphabetized. If there is any rhyme or reason to the default ordering of the Utilities applications, I cannot see it.
Aside from the nice, but needs an auto-sort option, application sorting feature, GNOME 3.38 is really polished. From a graphical/user experience perspective, everything is just a little nicer than GNOME 3.36. Not so nice that a user must upgrade immediately, but certainly nice improvements for those that do upgrade.
However, not everything in the Fedora 33 desktop experience was perfect. I will admit my computer is a fairly weak machine with not a lot of RAM, but I found myself dealing with constantly crashing Firefox tabs and notifications that Evince crashed after exiting the program. Both are probably related to the way Fedora handles running out of RAM, but I did not have this problem in Fedora 32, and other distributions using the same releases of Firefox and Evince are not displaying any problems. I am hoping this will be fixed at some point, but right now it makes using Fedora 33 rather annoying.
Default software selection
The default software selection of graphical applications included with Fedora 33 Workstation is very slim. Basically, Firefox, LibreOffice Calc, LibreOffice Impress, LibreOffice Writer, and various GNOME utilities are the entire list of pre-installed applications. LibreOffice is at version 7, but for some reason Fedora 33 does not have icons for LibreOffice Draw and LibreOffice Math. It is still possible to access to those parts of LibreOffice by opening one of the included LibreOffice components, closing the document, and selecting a new Draw or Math document, so I have idea why they decided to remove the icons for those applications. Maybe some advanced features are missing from those LibreOffice components, but the document types are still listed as options, unlike the Base component, which is disabled. Installing the libreoffice package using dnf creates the icons for those two applications and installs the LibreOffice Base component. In earlier version of Fedora, installing the libreoffice package only added the Base components and a few other extra features, so I am not sure why they decided to remove the Draw and Math icons.
On the command line, Fedora 33 comes pre-loaded with a selection of development tools. Fedora also includes podman and tools for working with containers as part of the default package selection. One other change on the command line is that nano is now the default editor. In previous version of Fedora, nano might not even be installed if certain package groups were not installed.
Installing additional software
GNOME Software is the graphical application provided to install additional applications. On the command-line, the dnf command can be used to install addition RPM packages and flatpak can be used to install Flatpak applications. However, the Flathub repository is not included by default, so the only Flatpak applications available are a small list of applications provided in a Fedora Flatpak repository.
Fedora 33 -- GNOME Software
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As is typical when I use Fedora, I had to install the RPM Fusion repositories and enable the Flathub Flatpak repository. However, that is only to gain access to a few packages. The amount of packages available for Fedora is very large. Were it not for some codecs from RPM Fusion and Zotero from Flathub, I could easily use just the software packages in Fedora's repositories.
I was extremely happy when I found out that Fedora 33's repositories contain packages for RStudio (both the desktop and sever version) and GnuCOBOL. I use both of the those all the time and usually have to download the RStudio RPM directly from the project's website and compile GnuCOBOL myself, but Fedora 33 lets me install both of those things right from the Fedora's repositories.
Final thoughts
Fedora 33 is the first time I have ever been frustrated with a Fedora release. From the Secure Boot issue to the constantly crashing Firefox tabs, this release of Fedora was not a pleasure to work with. It was not awful, but it was no where near what I have usually experienced from a Fedora release. I am sure all the issues will be fixed eventually, but, for now, I have a hard time recommending Fedora 33. Maybe people with better hardware will have better luck (the Firefox issue does seem to be related to not having enough available RAM), so try Fedora 33 out, if you are a Fedora fan. Maybe things will have improved by the time they put out a possible point release to deal with the Secure Boot issue, but nothing to date has fixed any of the issues I had when working on this review.
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Hardware used in this review:
My physical test equipment for this review was an ASUS VivoBook E406MA laptop with the following specifications:
- Processor: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 CPU
- Storage: 64GB eMMC
- Memory: 4GB of RAM
- Networking: Qualcomm Atheros QCA9377 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
- Display: Intel UHD Graphics 605
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Visitor supplied rating
Fedora has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.3/10 from 352 review(s).
Have you used Fedora? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Arch install media gains accessibility options, FreeBSD can run Linux build of Chrome, CentOS warns version 6 nearing end of life
The Arch Linux team has announced that, starting with the project's 2020.11.01 snapshot, Arch installation media will offer accessibility options. David Runge posted the news: "We are very happy to announce that accessibility features have been added to our installation medium with archiso v49. From release 2020.11.01 onward these are available via the 2nd boot loader menu item. A specific installation guide can be found on the wiki. Many thanks go to Alexander Epaneshnikov who integrated the features from the TalkingArch project into archiso's releng profile, which is used for creating the installation medium. Note: The boot loader timeouts have been set to 15s to allow blind users to select the menu item as the boot loaders themselves do not offer accessibility features."
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One of the interesting features of FreeBSD is the operating system's ability to run Linux programs. FreeBSD mostly maintains compatibility with Linux functions, allowing many Linux programs to run semi-natively on FreeBSD. There are some limitations though. FreeBSD support lags a little behind recent versions of Linux and the compatibility layer is typically based on CentOS which is conservative in its software versions. Even with those restrictions, one FreeBSD user managed to get the Linux build of the Chrome web browser running on FreeBSD. The lengthy setup instructions have been posted on the FreeBSD forum.
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The CentOS team posted their monthly newsletter this week. One of the items in the newsletter is a reminder that CentOS 6 is nearing the end of its supported life. People still running the 6.x series should upgrade before the end of November. "This is your final warning that CentOS 6 will be designated 'End Of Life' on November 30th. After that time, it will receive no more updates."
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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) |
Treating windows like tabs
I recently came across a technical support thread where the poster was looking for a way to organize application windows together where each window had a tab, similar to the way web browsers group open pages. These tabs would, ideally, be stored inside their own window. This would result in applications nested inside another window, accessible by tabs. The question intrigued me and so I did a little looking around for possible approaches to treating program windows like tabs. Sadly, the thread was taken down by a moderator so I am unable to reference it here, but I would still like to share what I found in case anyone else would like to organize their windows this way.
The first thing that came to mind was task switchers which will group similar applications under one icon. This does not arrange windows into tabs, but it does group them together. This can save screen space and unclutter the task switcher bar. Unfortunately, this approach usually just groups multiple instances of the same application, meaning it won't help if you have a bunch of unique applications running.
Grouped Konsole windows in KDE Plasma, running on Garuda Linux
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Another approach which was dug up from memory was the way some Microsoft Windows applications used to have multiple windows inside the main window. Now this only worked for one application which needed multiple views or documents, much like modern browsers have tabs for their pages. It does not really apply to multiple applications running at once, just one application keeping multiple documents open. Apart from programming IDEs I do not think I have encountered this behaviour on a Linux distribution.
A classic mIRC window containing channel windows
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The approach which seems to best follow the idea of arranging applications like browser tabs is offered by Material Shell. While it does not arrange the tabs for applications inside another window, it does arrange the tabs neatly across the top of the screen, similar to browser tabs. Material Shell is available as an extension to GNOME Shell and gives the desktop a minimal look while presenting applications as tabs across the top of the screen.
Running the Material Shell extension in GNOME
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The Material Shell allows users to treat the whole desktop as a window, in a way, with each program presented as a page in a tab, much the same way moderns web browsers present websites in tabs. It is a neat concept that is fairly easy to adjust to using.
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Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
ArchBang Linux 0111
ArchBang developer "mrgreen" has announced the release of ArchBang Linux 0111, the minimalist, Arch Linux-based distribution's first stable release after the recent switch from Openbox to i3 as the preferred window manager. From the release announcement: "November release, i3 tiling window manager based. Have just uploaded a release for November, usual thing - updated packages and configurations. The guide can now be viewed by using Super + g; it includes some basic keybind shortcuts in i3. Firefox is back for now; while huge, it does support many features that other lighter browsers do not have. Minor changes in abinstall fixes to remove installers from Conky post install." The switch from Openbox to i3 was initiated a couple of weeks ago: "ArchBang has been Openbox-based for over ten years. Over the next few weeks I will be working towards switching to i3 tiling window manager. It might be a little different at first but once you get used to it, you will never look back."
ArchBang Linux 0111 -- Running the i3 window manager
(full image size: 3.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Emmabuntüs DE3-1.03
The Emmabuntüs project provides a lightweight distribution based on Debian for lower-end computers. The project's latest release is based on Debian 10.6 and features the Xfce and LXQt desktop environments. "Concerning the 1.03 version, the following fixes and improvements were made: Based on the Debian 10.6 Buster distribution. Addition of the OEM install mode via Calamares. Addition of Warpinator. Addition of the zram-tools utility. Update of Multisystem 1.0451, dated Oct-03-2020, with the Emmabuntüs DE 4 support, and addition of a specific theme for the reuse campaign. Updates of: HPLip 3.20.6, Firefox ESR 78.3.0, Thunderbird 78.3.1, TurboPrint 2.50-1, VeraCrypt 1.24-Update7." The new version also includes some cloning options for OEM providers. Further details along with screenshots of the new OEM options can be found in the project's release announcement.
UBports 16.04 OTA-14
The UBports team have announced the launch of Ubuntu Touch 16.04 OTA-14, the latest version of the project's mobile operating system. The new version introduces support for more devices, updates driver and hardware support, and a number of interface improvements were made: "At the beginning of each development cycle, we decide what our main focus for the cycle is going to be. For OTA-14, we chose to focus on Android 9 support. We believe this will help power the launch of our sponsor's Volla Phone delivering it as a daily driver into the hands of its new recipients. This was largely a success: We were able to fix issues with swiping apps away to close them, Ratchanan did quite a number on camera support, and external display support with HardwareComposer2 now works. Given the OTA-14 development cycle was only 34 days, we believe this was a huge success. That's not all, though: Outside of our team's 'new development' commitments, we also merged many changes and translations from our volunteer community." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement.
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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| Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,213
- Total data uploaded: 34.6TB
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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) |
What do you think of Material Shell?
In our Questions and Answers column we talked about the Material Shell extension for GNOME which treats application windows on the desktop like web browser tabs. What do you think of this approach to organizing and switching between applications?
You can see the results of our previous poll on which offers the better experience, Wayland or X.Org in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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What do you think of Material Shell?
| I tried it and like it: | 50 (5%) |
| I have not tried it but like the idea: | 274 (27%) |
| I tried it and did not like it: | 31 (3%) |
| I have not tried it and do not like the idea: | 305 (31%) |
| Neutral/Undecided: | 337 (34%) |
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|
| Website News |
New distributions added to database
Snal Linux
Snal Linux is a small Linux distribution based on Arch Linux. It features the i3 window manager and it includes the Firefox web browser, as well as a handful of network and filesystem utilities. It is intended to be used as a live image to troubleshoot hard disk, system and network problems.
Snal Linux 1.0 -- Running the i3 window manger
(full image size: 193kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
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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, 16 November 2020. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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| Random Distribution | 
AriOS
AriOS was a user-friendly, Ubuntu-based distribution containing extra applications, multimedia codecs, Flash and Java plugins, many tweaks and a unique look and feel.
Status: Discontinued
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| TUXEDO |
TUXEDO Computers - Linux Hardware in a tailor made suite
Choose from a wide range of laptops and PCs in various sizes and shapes at TUXEDOComputers.com. Every machine comes pre-installed and ready-to-run with Linux. Full 24 months of warranty and lifetime support included!
Learn more about our full service package and all benefits from buying at TUXEDO.
|
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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