 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 893, 23 November 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 47th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Mobile devices are increasingly a part of our lives. Virtually everyone in our society has a smart phone of one type or another. These devices store a great deal of information about our lives - who we talk to, where we go, and what we have scheduled. This week, in our News section, we talk about two mobile devices which are designed to provide more privacy and more open source solutions. The KDE team is working on running the Plasma Mobile interface on PinePhone devices while the Purism team is now selling its mass production edition of the Librem 5 phone. The details on both are below. Plus we discuss the Haiku team introducing support for the XFS and UFS filesystems along with a Debian developer seeking guidance on how to address init diversity issues. We also say good-bye to Fedora 31 as this legacy version of the distribution reaches the end of its supported life while Sabayon switches its base to Funtoo. First though we talk about ArchBang Linux, a rolling release distribution which recently switched from using the Openbox window manager to i3. Read on to hear about how this cutting edge distribution performs. Plus, in our Questions and Answers column, we talk about how Secure Boot works, why some data is pushed to swap space when memory isn't full, and why some distributions do not enable a firewall by default. Do you run machines with Secure Boot enabled? Let us know if you make use of this feature in our Opinion Poll. As usual, we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a fantastic week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: ArchBang Linux 0111
- News: Plasma Mobile coming to PinePhones, Purism launches mass production units of Librem 5, Haiku improves filesystem support, Debian developer seeks guidance on init issue, Fedora 31 reaches the end of its life, Sabayon changes its base to Funtoo
- Questions and answers: Secure Boot, stuff stored in swap when memory is not full, enabling the firewall
- Released last week: Kali Linux 2020.4, IPFire 2.25 Core 152, EasyOS 2.5
- Torrent corner: Bluestar, CloudReady, EasyOS, IPFire, Kali Linux, KaOS, Karoshi, MidnightBSD, Tails, Volumio
- Opinion poll: Do you enable Secure Boot?
- New distributions: MocaccinoOS
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (10MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
ArchBang Linux 0111
ArchBang Linux is a lightweight distribution based on Arch Linux. Using the i3 window manager, it strives to be fast, up-to-date and suitable for desktop systems. The current snapshots of ArchBang use an unusual versioning convention with a day & month combination. For example, 0811 is the snapshot for the 8th of November. Previous versions used a year & month combination so that a snapshot from January 2014 would be 2014.01.
Apart from the shift in version numbers since the last time I tried ArchBang the distribution has also swapped out the Openbox window manager for i3 on the install media. I was curious to see how this would work. ArchBang has just one download option, a 914MB ISO file that runs on 64-bit (x86_64) machines.
The live media boots and brings up the i3 window manager. The wallpaper displays a nice water-focused nature scene. There is a Conky status panel displayed to the right of the desktop. Under the status readout there is a listing for keyboard shortcuts we can use to launch some programs, access desktop settings, and start the install process.
ArchBang 0111 -- The live media running i3
(full image size: 1.6MB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Unlike most window managers, we cannot left- or right-click on the desktop. Nor can we click on the panel at the bottom of the screen or the status readout. There is a volume icon we can click on to mute and un-mute audio. There is also a small network icon we can click to connect to local networks. In short, the environment is mostly non-interactive. The live media uses about 200MB of RAM while signed into i3 and the interface is very responsive.
Opening any one application window causes the application to be displayed as a full screen window. Opening additional programs causes their windows to be placed side-by-side, resulting in a horizontal collection of windows that get increasingly squeezed. It's not particularly practical unless we have a wide monitor or only wish to use one program at a time.
Installing
ArchBang offers two system installers on the live media. The first runs in text mode in a virtual terminal. The second system installer, which is referred to as the Zen Installer, uses a graphical interface. I started with the Zen Installer. The first thing I discovered about the Zen Installer is it presents us with a serious of screens where, at the bottom of each screen, we have buttons with the option to proceed (OK) or back out (Cancel). At first we are asked about partitioning and which disk we want to use. I selected automatic partitioning by accident and decided to cancel and go back to take the manual partitioning option. I soon discovered that clicking the Cancel button works exactly the same as clicking OK. Which means if we click Cancel a few times the installer picks a disk to format and wipes it.
I want to be clear here. Launching the system installer and clicking Cancel a few times wipes out existing partitions. This is a pretty serious bug and I tried it a couple of times (in a virtual machine) to confirm it's a consistent problem.
ArchBang 0111 -- The Zen Installer
(full image size: 413kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The Zen Installer, assuming we go ahead with it and pick partitioning options that work for us, takes an unusually long time to get through. There are over 26 screens in the installer, assuming we don't choose to install a bunch of extras or take any advanced options. This may make ArchBang's graphical installer the longest one I have seen to date. I'd like to quickly run through the screens, listing their questions in point form, just to give readers an idea of what the Zen installer asks at a minimum:
We pick a storage device to use; select guided or manual partitioning through GParted; pick a partition to use for the root filesystem; select a partition to use for swap; pick a country code for our location; pick our locale from a cryptic list; pick a two-letter country code for our keyboard; confirm if our keyboard was in the previous list; pick a time zone; make up a hostname; make up a username; set passwords for the root account and our regular user account; pick a shell (from bash, fish, or zsh); select which kernel (Linux, LTS, Zen, or Hardened) to install; when running in VirtualBox we are asked if VirtualBox add-ons should be installed; do we wish to add a third-party package repository?; we can then enable multilib repositories; we are asked if we want a graphical package manager; we are asked to pick which graphical package manager; we are asked if we want to enable the AUR; we can choose to install printer support; we are asked to pick our session manager (LXDM, SSDM, GDM, and "default" are available); we can pick a single desktop environment from a long list; we are asked if we want to install Firefox; which language to install with Firefox; whether we wish to install LibreOffice; install the Still or Fresh LibreOffice package; which language support to add to LibreOffice; do we want to install other optional software?; do we want to install a boot loader?; and where to install the boot loader?
The installer finally copies its files to the hard drive and then gives us one more option. We can restart the computer, edit the package manager's configuration, or run a chroot in the freshly installed distribution.
The questions themselves are not all that unusual, but two things really stood out (apart from the vast number of queries we need to go through). One is that we can only select one desktop environment to install and some of the options are a little odd. Most of the items, like LXQt and Cinnamon, are clear enough. However, some of the options are listed in a way that makes me unsure what they do differently. For example, there is a MATE option and a MATE-MATE Extra option. The same applies to Deepin and Deepin-Deepin Extra. I suppose the Extra options probably come with more software, but I'm unclear on what would be bundled as an extra in this case.
The second thing which really stood out is virtually all configuration is done up front and manually. This really slows down the install process. It's something one of my UNIX system administration textbooks would refer to as the "spineless" approach, where software has virtually no defaults and therefore doesn't work until it is configured in detail. Which is incredibly flexible, but not particularly practical for getting new software up and running.
First impressions
The first time I completed the install process I tried to boot into my new system and it failed, with the computer reporting there was no bootable medium found. I thought perhaps something had gone wrong when installing the boot loader using the Zen Installer and so decided to try again with the text installer.
The text installer offers mostly similar steps to Zen, but it's a shorter process. I proceeded through the steps fairly easily, going through disk partitioning, picking a time zone, and so on. When it came to setting up the boot loader there were two main options: install GRUB automatically or install a boot loader manually. The automated GRUB option reported an error message, but showed up as a completed step in the system installer's menu. I redid the step, selecting the manual option which hands us over to a virtual terminal where we need to manually type in the GRUB install command along with a disk location. Once this was done and I had closed the terminal window the system installer went into a loop where it kept trying to perform the GRUB automated installation over and over and over.
ArchBang 0111 -- The text-based installer
(full image size: 48kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
After quitting the text-based installer I went back to the Zen Installer and tried again. I zipped through the installer, focusing on taking as few options as possible. The installer finished its work and offered to restart the computer. This time bootable media was found and GRUB successfully handed over control to ArchBang. Messages appeared on the screen reporting the kernel and RAM disk were being loaded, then the system froze. After a few minutes I performed a hard restart of the machine and it successfully booted to a graphical login screen.
At this point it temporarily looked like my difficulties were at an end, but then I tried to sign into my account. The system started to load my desktop session, then kicked me back to the login screen. This was different behaviour than what happened if I intentionally put in invalid login credentials so it seems the issue was happening with correct username and password information. Wondering if a permission issue might be at work, I tried logging in with the root account and again was shunted back to the login page.
Blocked from logging into a desktop environment (I tried one install with LXQt and another with MATE) I switched to the text console. My account could sign into the console and, from there, I could interact with command line programs, run the pacman package manager, and manage services with systemd. Version 5.4 of the Linux kernel was running in the background. This may seem like an unusually old version of Linux for an Arch-based distribution, but I had opted to go for the long-term support kernel at install time, which is more conservative.
From the console I was able to run startx to launch a graphical environment, but it defaulted to the very minimal twm interface rather than the desktop environment I had installed.
A short time later I ran the halt command to shutdown the system. Instead ArchBang restarted the computer and, after going through the GRUB boot loader, locked up again after loading the kernel and RAM disk.
Conclusions
At this point I officially gave up on ArchBang. Both installers have critical bugs in them. The distribution takes far too long to install, did not manage to produce a working desktop environment when it installed successfully, and 2/5ths of the time I tried to boot the installed operating system it locked up.
I will give credit where it is due. The distribution's live media worked well. I must have booted the live disc a dozen times while testing hardware and exploring different install options. Each time it booted quickly, used a small amount of RAM, and the i3 interface was responsive. The i3 window manager is quite minimal and feels more akin to a tablet interface than a regular desktop with free-floating windows. It is not to my taste, but I know some people really like the focused approach tiling window mangers provide.
When running from the live media, whether in a virtual machine or on my laptop, ArchBang ran smoothly and detected all of my hardware. It's just unfortunate that the install process is so cumbersome and, in my case, effectively does not provide a working operating system.
* * * * *
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
* * * * *
Visitor supplied rating
ArchBang Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.7/10 from 6 review(s).
Have you used ArchBang Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Plasma Mobile coming to PinePhones, Purism launches mass production units of Librem 5, Haiku improves filesystem support, Debian developer seeks guidance on init issue, Fedora 31 reaches the end of its life, Sabayon changes its base to Funtoo
The KDE team has announced that it is now possible to run the Plasma Mobile user interface on the PinePhone. "KDE and Pine64 are announcing today the imminent availability of the new PinePhone - KDE Community edition. This Pine64 PinePhone gives you a taste of where free mobile devices and software platforms are headed. The PinePhone - KDE Community edition includes most of the essential features a smartphone user would expect and its functionalities increase day by day. You can follow the progress of the development of apps and features in the Plasma Mobile blog. Plasma Mobile is a direct descendant from KDE's successful Plasma desktop. The same underlying technologies drive both environments and apps like KDE Connect that lets you connect phones and desktops, the Okular document reader, the VVave music player, and others, are available on both desktop and mobile." The Plasma Mobile interface will be running on a mobile edition of KDE neon.
* * * * *
The Haiku team have published their monthly newsletter which outlines work being done to the lightweight, desktop operating system. One of the significant changes in the works is the ability to support both the XFS and UFS filesystems. The system installer can now be used to reset the operating system without wiping out existing data files and settings. "Parts of this summer GSoC work from cruxbox (on XFS) and Suhel Mehta (on UFS2) were merged. The filesystems are still not quite ready for day to day usage, however. PulkoMandy's work on MMC and SDHCI (for eMMC and SD cards) has been merged but is still incomplete and not enabled by default. Korli added posix_fallocate with the matching syscall to preallocate disk space before writing it, and also added an implementation for SEEK_DATA and SEEK_HOLE in lseek. kallisti5 changed the write() implementation to allow 0-byte writes, as needed by the Go port. Installer can be used again to erase an existing install while preserving user data and settings. This can be used to restore an unbootable system while keeping the user data."
* * * * *
Kyle Rankin has announced that Purism is now shipping the mass production version of their Librem 5 phone. The mobile device is designed to be open and ships with the project's GNU/Linux distribution pre-installed. The phone is privacy-focused and ships with a number of hardware switches for disabling the cellular modem, Bluetooth, and camera. "Purism, a Social Purpose Company (SPC) focusing on security and privacy with its hardware and software, has begun shipping its mass-produced Librem 5 phone to customers. The Librem 5 is a one-of-a-kind general-purpose computer in a phone form-factor that Purism has designed and built from scratch following a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised over $2.2 million. Both the hardware and software design is focused on respecting the end user's freedom and giving them control over their privacy and security. The Librem 5 doesn't run Android nor iOS but instead runs the same PureOS operating system as Purism's laptops and mini PC." Further details can be found in the announcement. Additional information and purchase options for the Librem 5 and other Purism devices can be found on the organization's Products page.
* * * * *
About a year ago the Debian project voted on the subject of init software and init diversity. The outcome was that Debian would, as a project, focus its resources on using systemd while leaving the door open for people to support alternatives, allowing users to run a variety of init software. The winning option of the vote read: "The Debian project recognizes that systemd service units are the preferred configuration for describing how to start a daemon/service. However, Debian remains an environment where developers and users can explore and develop alternate init systems and alternatives to systemd features."
Matthew Vernon has raised the concern that developers working on alternative init software are being stonewalled by Debian's package maintainers, some of whom are removing alternative init support from their packages and refusing to accept patches which support non-systemd options. Vernon wrote to the Debian Technical Community looking for guidance: "I'm afraid the effect of this is that the maintainers of this package are making it impossible for other developers to enable support of sysvinit. There are people who will (and have) test compatibility changes, help with issues with sysvinit scripts, and so on, but those
efforts are in effect being stonewalled. The effect of this, and equivalent behaviour in some other packages, is that it is going to be impossible to make a useful Bullseye for users who want to use sysvinit." At the time of writing a response has not been published.
* * * * *
Mohan Boddu has sent out a reminder that Fedora 31 is about to reach the end of its supported life. "Fedora 31 will go end of life for updates and support on 24th of November 2020. No further updates, including security updates, will be available for Fedora 31 after the said date. All the updates of Fedora 31 being pushed to stable will be stopped as well. Fedora 32 will continue to receive updates until approximately one month after the release of Fedora 34." Further information, including upgrade instructions, can be found in Boddu's mailing list post.
* * * * *
The Sabayon distribution is a long-running, rolling release platform based on Gentoo. The Sabayon team has been working in collaboration with the Funtoo distribution and will be basing future work on the Funtoo base. The Sabayon blog reports: "Funtoo shines for additional QA layers, proven reliability, and incredible performance setup out of the box, plus the wonderful metatools and Kits ecosystem. Funtoo has a strong community with a solid background. By joining together forces, years of experience, knowledge, and tooling, we will be able to deliver the best Linux experience also in a binary format, stronger, and together. We will mutually contribute to each others' projects, actually merging our development teams." A corresponding message appeared on the Funtoo forum.
The Sabayon project is also looking to move in a new direction with plans to introduce a new name (MocaccinoOS), and a new package manager called Luet. Luet will be used as a front-end for container-based package management.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Secure Boot, stuff stored in swap when memory is not full, enabling the firewall
Some weeks I get a series of questions which require relatively short answers. I collected a bunch of these and decided to answer them all together.
Am-I-secure asks: How does Secure Boot work? I read it's Microsoft technology and they sign everything, so how do Linux distributions use it? Is Microsoft signing their kernels or what?
DistroWatch answers: Secure Boot is a technology which allows your computer's hardware (or, more specifically, its firmware) to check to see whether the low-level code it is running, like the kernel, has been corrupted or tampered with maliciously. The idea is that a company or developer can sign their low-level code, whether it be a boot loader or kernel. The signature allows us to know who created the package and whether it has been tampered with. The computer's firmware then refuses to load any code from developers it does not recognize, and refuses to boot if code has been corrupted. In theory this means we are protected against maliciously replaced kernels and boot loaders.
Microsoft does not sign all the kernels for distributions which support Secure Boot technology. What has happened is the computers are shipped with the ability to recognize and verify code signed by Microsoft. Then distributions, such a Ubuntu, get Microsoft to sign a shim or certificate. From that point on the distribution's developers just need to sign their code with their own key. The idea is the computer's hardware trusts Microsoft, and Microsoft has authenticated (therefore trusts) the Linux developers' certificates. Therefore the Linux developers can sign anything they want their distribution to run. It's a chain of trust.
A good explanation along with details on how this works can be found in the Ubuntu wiki under the Secure Boot section.
* * * * *
Filling-up asks: My system monitor shows swap space being used, even when memory is mostly empty. What is going wrong here?
DistroWatch answers: The good news is nothing is going wrong. The operating system will sometimes recognize when memory is not being accessed and preemptively copy that information to swap space. The system is fairly certain it will not need that data in a hurry and so it is pushing the information from RAM out to swap in order to free up space for things you might want to do in the near future.
You can adjust how likely Linux is to move information into swap space using a parameter called swappiness. A high swappiness value (90-100) means Linux will try to shove as much data as possible out to swap space to free up RAM. A low swappiness value (1-10) means very little will get sent to swap space and the system will try to keep data in RAM until it runs out of room.
You can experiment with different swappiness values by running the sysctl command and passing it a new swappiness value. Here I set my swappiness value to 25:
sysctl vm.swappiness=25
Please note the sysctl command must be run with root access or using a tool like sudo. You can see what your distribution's current swappiness level is by running:
cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness
* * * * *
Hiding-behind-a-wall asks: Why do so many distros not turn on the firewall? Isn't that a big security risk?
DistroWatch answers: A firewall is typically used to block (or limit) network connections to a local service running on your computer. This can be helpful if you want to place a restriction on the number of connections coming in or prevent people from connecting to a service, like secure shell. However, if your computer is not running any network services (such as secure shell, printer sharing, or a web server) then there is nothing for remote users to connect to on your computer. There isn't much point in setting up a firewall that blocks access to nothing.
In addition, some distribution developers are aware that if you do set up a network service, one of the most common problems people run into is the firewall blocking access while they are trying to test their new service. Disabling the firewall by default avoids the most common problems when a service is being enabled.
Basically, firewalls are useful for people who want to run network services, but who also want to prevent some people from using those services. It is unusual to find such a computer set up and connected directly to the Internet, rather than behind a router or dedicated firewall. Which means many of us don't need a firewall which is why many distributions do not enable it out of the box.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
IPFire 2.25 Core 152
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 152. The project's new version includes a number of package updates and a big upgrade for Samba users. "Samba, has been updated to 4.13.0. Because of various reasons and lack of development time, we were stuck on Samba 3 which is unmaintained for a while. With this new version of Samba, new protocol features like SMB3 and encryption are supported. We have also rewritten large parts of the web user interface, made them tidier and fixed some usability issues. We also dropped some features which we believe are not being used any more. This mainly concerns compatibility to MS-DOS clients, WINS, and using IPFire as Primary Domain Controller for Windows NT domains." Further details can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Kali Linux 2020.4
Kali Linux is a Debian-based distribution with a collection of security and forensics tools. The project's latest release, Kali Linux 2020.4, makes zsh the default command line shell, introduces new users to resources at login, and adjusts the bash shell to appear more like zsh. "In our previous quarterly release, 2020.3, we gave a heads up that we will be switching from Bash to zsh as our default shell going forwards (where possible). We are happy to announce that after testing and feedback from users, the switch has now happened. Say hello to to zsh. Thank you to everyone who provided positive and constructive feedback. We are happy with it, and hope you are too. With that said, we know we cannot please everyone with it (so if you wish to revert back to Bash, please do: 'chsh -s /bin/bash')." Further details along with screenshots of the new bash shell style can be found in the distribution's release announcement.
Kali Linux 2020.4 -- Exploring the Kali suite of tools
(full image size: 274kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
EasyOS 2.5
EasyOS is an experimental Linux distribution which uses many of the technologies and package formats pioneered by Puppy Linux. The distribution features custom container technology called Easy Containers which can run applications or the entire desktop environment in a container. EasyOS 2.5 introduces a number of new changes which are highlighted in the project's release announcement. "EasyOS 2.5 is the latest in the 2.x Buster-series, built with Debian 10.6 DEBs. As well as the DEBs, other packages are updated, including SeaMonkey 2.53.5, and the Linux kernel is now 5.4.78. There have been many infrastructure and utility fixes and improvements, including hardware-profiling for the CPU temperature monitor. The single most significant application change relative to the previous release is the new BluePup bluetooth manager, replacing Blueman (though Blueman is in the repository, so can be installed if needed). The Multiple Sound Card Wizard has been integrated with BluePup." More detailed information can be found in the distribution's release notes.
* * * * *
Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
|
| 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: 2,233
- Total data uploaded: 34.9TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Do you enable Secure Boot?
In our Questions and Answers column we talked about some security features, including Secure Boot and firewalls. Secure Boot can be used to guard against low-level components of the operating system being altered. Do you enable Secure Boot on your computers?
You can see the results of our previous poll on recommending distributions in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Do you enable Secure Boot?
| I use Secure Boot on all my computers: | 137 (9%) |
| I use Secure Boot on some computers: | 216 (14%) |
| I do not use Secure Boot: | 1147 (72%) |
| Unsure: | 87 (5%) |
|
|
| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- MocaccinoOS. MocaccinoOS is a Funtoo-based distribution which uses the Luet package manager to act as a friendly front-end for container-based software distribution.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 30 November 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)
|
|
| Tip Jar |
If you've enjoyed this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly, please consider sending us a tip.
(Tips this week: 0, value: US$0.00) |
|
|
|
 bc1qxes3k2wq3uqzr074tkwwjmwfe63z70gwzfu4lx  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
|
|
|
| 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.
|
| Archives |
| • Issue 1091 (2024-10-07): Redox OS 0.9.0, Unified package management vs universal package formats, Redox begins RISC-V port, Mint polishes interface, Qubes certifies new laptop |
| • Issue 1090 (2024-09-30): Rhino Linux 2024.2, commercial distros with alternative desktops, Valve seeks to improve Wayland performance, HardenedBSD parterns with Protectli, Tails merges with Tor Project, Quantum Leap partners with the FreeBSD Foundation |
| • Issue 1089 (2024-09-23): Expirion 6.0, openKylin 2.0, managing configuration files, the future of Linux development, fixing bugs in Haiku, Slackware packages dracut |
| • Issue 1088 (2024-09-16): PorteuX 1.6, migrating from Windows 10 to which Linux distro, making NetBSD immutable, AlmaLinux offers hardware certification, Mint updates old APT tools |
| • Issue 1087 (2024-09-09): COSMIC desktop, running cron jobs at variable times, UBports highlights new apps, HardenedBSD offers work around for FreeBSD change, Debian considers how to cull old packages, systemd ported to musl |
| • Issue 1086 (2024-09-02): Vanilla OS 2, command line tips for simple tasks, FreeBSD receives investment from STF, openSUSE Tumbleweed update can break network connections, Debian refreshes media |
| • Issue 1085 (2024-08-26): Nobara 40, OpenMandriva 24.07 "ROME", distros which include source code, FreeBSD publishes quarterly report, Microsoft updates breaks Linux in dual-boot environments |
| • Issue 1084 (2024-08-19): Liya 2.0, dual boot with encryption, Haiku introduces performance improvements, Gentoo dropping IA-64, Redcore merges major upgrade |
| • Issue 1083 (2024-08-12): TrueNAS 24.04.2 "SCALE", Linux distros for smartphones, Redox OS introduces web server, PipeWire exposes battery drain on Linux, Canonical updates kernel version policy |
| • Issue 1082 (2024-08-05): Linux Mint 22, taking snapshots of UFS on FreeBSD, openSUSE updates Tumbleweed and Aeon, Debian creates Tiny QA Tasks, Manjaro testing immutable images |
| • Issue 1081 (2024-07-29): SysLinuxOS 12.4, OpenBSD gain hardware acceleration, Slackware changes kernel naming, Mint publishes upgrade instructions |
| • Issue 1080 (2024-07-22): Running GNU/Linux on Android with Andronix, protecting network services, Solus dropping AppArmor and Snap, openSUSE Aeon Desktop gaining full disk encryption, SUSE asks openSUSE to change its branding |
| • Issue 1079 (2024-07-15): Ubuntu Core 24, hiding files on Linux, Fedora dropping X11 packages on Workstation, Red Hat phasing out GRUB, new OpenSSH vulnerability, FreeBSD speeds up release cycle, UBports testing new first-run wizard |
| • Issue 1078 (2024-07-08): Changing init software, server machines running desktop environments, OpenSSH vulnerability patched, Peppermint launches new edition, HardenedBSD updates ports |
| • Issue 1077 (2024-07-01): The Unity and Lomiri interfaces, different distros for different tasks, Ubuntu plans to run Wayland on NVIDIA cards, openSUSE updates Leap Micro, Debian releases refreshed media, UBports gaining contact synchronisation, FreeDOS celebrates its 30th anniversary |
| • Issue 1076 (2024-06-24): openSUSE 15.6, what makes Linux unique, SUSE Liberty Linux to support CentOS Linux 7, SLE receives 19 years of support, openSUSE testing Leap Micro edition |
| • Issue 1075 (2024-06-17): Redox OS, X11 and Wayland on the BSDs, AlmaLinux releases Pi build, Canonical announces RISC-V laptop with Ubuntu, key changes in systemd |
| • Issue 1074 (2024-06-10): Endless OS 6.0.0, distros with init diversity, Mint to filter unverified Flatpaks, Debian adds systemd-boot options, Redox adopts COSMIC desktop, OpenSSH gains new security features |
| • Issue 1073 (2024-06-03): LXQt 2.0.0, an overview of Linux desktop environments, Canonical partners with Milk-V, openSUSE introduces new features in Aeon Desktop, Fedora mirrors see rise in traffic, Wayland adds OpenBSD support |
| • Issue 1072 (2024-05-27): Manjaro 24.0, comparing init software, OpenBSD ports Plasma 6, Arch community debates mirror requirements, ThinOS to upgrade its FreeBSD core |
| • Issue 1071 (2024-05-20): Archcraft 2024.04.06, common command line mistakes, ReactOS imports WINE improvements, Haiku makes adjusting themes easier, NetBSD takes a stand against code generated by chatbots |
| • Issue 1070 (2024-05-13): Damn Small Linux 2024, hiding kernel messages during boot, Red Hat offers AI edition, new web browser for UBports, Fedora Asahi Remix 40 released, Qubes extends support for version 4.1 |
| • Issue 1069 (2024-05-06): Ubuntu 24.04, installing packages in alternative locations, systemd creates sudo alternative, Mint encourages XApps collaboration, FreeBSD publishes quarterly update |
| • Issue 1068 (2024-04-29): Fedora 40, transforming one distro into another, Debian elects new Project Leader, Red Hat extends support cycle, Emmabuntus adds accessibility features, Canonical's new security features |
| • Issue 1067 (2024-04-22): LocalSend for transferring files, detecting supported CPU architecure levels, new visual design for APT, Fedora and openSUSE working on reproducible builds, LXQt released, AlmaLinux re-adds hardware support |
| • Issue 1066 (2024-04-15): Fun projects to do with the Raspberry Pi and PinePhone, installing new software on fixed-release distributions, improving GNOME Terminal performance, Mint testing new repository mirrors, Gentoo becomes a Software In the Public Interest project |
| • Issue 1065 (2024-04-08): Dr.Parted Live 24.03, answering questions about the xz exploit, Linux Mint to ship HWE kernel, AlmaLinux patches flaw ahead of upstream Red Hat, Calculate changes release model |
| • Issue 1064 (2024-04-01): NixOS 23.11, the status of Hurd, liblzma compromised upstream, FreeBSD Foundation focuses on improving wireless networking, Ubuntu Pro offers 12 years of support |
| • Issue 1063 (2024-03-25): Redcore Linux 2401, how slowly can a rolling release update, Debian starts new Project Leader election, Red Hat creating new NVIDIA driver, Snap store hit with more malware |
| • Issue 1062 (2024-03-18): KDE neon 20240304, changing file permissions, Canonical turns 20, Pop!_OS creates new software centre, openSUSE packages Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1061 (2024-03-11): Using a PinePhone as a workstation, restarting background services on a schedule, NixBSD ports Nix to FreeBSD, Fedora packaging COSMIC, postmarketOS to adopt systemd, Linux Mint replacing HexChat |
| • Issue 1060 (2024-03-04): AV Linux MX-23.1, bootstrapping a network connection, key OpenBSD features, Qubes certifies new hardware, LXQt and Plasma migrate to Qt 6 |
| • Issue 1059 (2024-02-26): Warp Terminal, navigating manual pages, malware found in the Snap store, Red Hat considering CPU requirement update, UBports organizes ongoing work |
| • Issue 1058 (2024-02-19): Drauger OS 7.6, how much disk space to allocate, System76 prepares to launch COSMIC desktop, UBports changes its version scheme, TrueNAS to offer faster deduplication |
| • Issue 1057 (2024-02-12): Adelie Linux 1.0 Beta, rolling release vs fixed for a smoother experience, Debian working on 2038 bug, elementary OS to split applications from base system updates, Fedora announces Atomic Desktops |
| • Issue 1056 (2024-02-05): wattOS R13, the various write speeds of ISO writing tools, DSL returns, Mint faces Wayland challenges, HardenedBSD blocks foreign USB devices, Gentoo publishes new repository, Linux distros patch glibc flaw |
| • Issue 1055 (2024-01-29): CNIX OS 231204, distributions patching packages the most, Gentoo team presents ongoing work, UBports introduces connectivity and battery improvements, interview with Haiku developer |
| • Issue 1054 (2024-01-22): Solus 4.5, comparing dd and cp when writing ISO files, openSUSE plans new major Leap version, XeroLinux shutting down, HardenedBSD changes its build schedule |
| • Issue 1053 (2024-01-15): Linux AI voice assistants, some distributions running hotter than others, UBports talks about coming changes, Qubes certifies StarBook laptops, Asahi Linux improves energy savings |
| • Issue 1052 (2024-01-08): OpenMandriva Lx 5.0, keeping shell commands running when theterminal closes, Mint upgrades Edge kernel, Vanilla OS plans big changes, Canonical working to make Snap more cross-platform |
| • Issue 1051 (2024-01-01): Favourite distros of 2023, reloading shell settings, Asahi Linux releases Fedora remix, Gentoo offers binary packages, openSUSE provides full disk encryption |
| • Issue 1050 (2023-12-18): rlxos 2023.11, renaming files and opening terminal windows in specific directories, TrueNAS publishes ZFS fixes, Debian publishes delayed install media, Haiku polishes desktop experience |
| • Issue 1049 (2023-12-11): Lernstick 12, alternatives to WINE, openSUSE updates its branding, Mint unveils new features, Lubuntu team plans for 24.04 |
| • Issue 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Full list of all issues |
| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
|
| Random Distribution | 
xPUD
xPUD was an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution and live CD/USB image consisting mainly of a web browser and a media player, with a simple user interface on top. The goal of the developers was to create an operating system which was extremely lightweight and fast-booting, includes applications for daily use, and has an intuitive, easy-to-use desktop interface.
Status: Discontinued
|
| 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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
0x969CD4E778C7b6549A2B00e34114e0168c86A542 
