 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 905, 22 February 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 8th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
There are a number of tools, browser plugins and distributions geared towards helping people stay anonymous on-line. One of the most popular of these is the combination of the Tails distribution running the Tor web browser. However, there are alternatives and this week we explore one called Septor. The Septor project, like Tails, is based on Debian and funnels its network traffic through Tor. However, Septor ships with a different collection of tools and a different desktop environment, giving it a notably different approach. Read on to hear Jesse Smith's first impressions of the Septor project. In our News section we talk about PINE64 selecting Manjaro Linux as the default operating system for the PinePhone. Meanwhile UBports has unveiled a new Devices page which tracks supported mobile hardware and work left to do on some phones. The Slackware project is gearing up for its first stable release in over four years and we share details below. We also share a request from the Linux Mint team for people to keep up with security updates. Then, in our Questions and Answers section, we talk about how to avoid upgrading to newer versions of Ubuntu's kernel when upgrading could cause regressions. Do you run upgraded kernels with newer hardware support on a fixed release distribution? Let us know what your approach is to newer kernels in our Opinion Poll. Plus we are pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading.
Content:
- Review: Septor 2021
- News: Manjaro to be PinePhone's default operating system, Slackware prepares for a new release, UBports unveils new Devices page, Mint urges users apply security updates
- Questions and answers: Using older kernels on Ubuntu LTS releases
- Released last week: siduction 21.1.0, Devuan GNU+Linux 3.1.0, Q4OS 3.14
- Torrent corner: Alpine, Devuan, Endless OS, KDE neon, KNOPPIX, Mabox, Netrunner, pfSense, Q4OS, siduction, Tiny Core, Void
- Upcoming releases: FreeBSD 13.0-RC1
- Opinion poll: Running Hardware Enablement kernels
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (10MB) and MP3 (17MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Septor 2021
Septor is a Linux distribution which provides users with a pre-configured computing environment for surfing the Internet anonymously. It is based on Debian's Testing branch and it uses Privoxy, a privacy-enhancing proxy, together with the Tor anonymity network to modify web page data and HTTP headers before the page is rendered by the browser. The distribution uses KDE Plasma as the preferred desktop environment and it also includes the Tor Browser for anonymous web browsing and OnionShare for file sharing.
Septor is in the same family of distributions as Tails, which we talked about last year. Tails is also Debian-based and is intended to be used for anonymous web browsing and file sharing. One of the big differences between the two projects is Tails uses the GNOME desktop while Septor uses KDE Plasma. Another difference is Tails is typically run as a live distribution from a USB thumb drive, often with persistent storage. Septor, on the other hand, can either be used as a standard live disc or installed to a hard drive via Debian's system installer.
Septor is available in one edition for 64-bit (x86_64) computers. The ISO file we download is 1.8GB in size. Booting from this media brings up a menu asking if we would like to run the live desktop or launch the installer. When running in UEFI mode just one install option was visible, but in Legacy BIOS mode I could select either a graphical installer or a text installer.
Taking the live option brings up a graphical login screen. We are shown a mostly empty screen that tells us we can sign in to the live desktop using the password "live". There are drop-down menus for choosing our session type (only KDE Plasma is available) and our keyboard layout (only US is available). Signing into the default user account brings up the Plasma desktop with a blue background. A panel sits at the bottom of the display. The desktop is fairly quiet and empty, though browsing through the application menu presents us with several useful tools I will talk about later. We are automatically connected to the Tor network when we open a web browser or other tool, allowing us to browse the web with a degree of anonymity.
Septor 2021 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 715kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
One feature of Septor I found unusual is there is a weather widget in the desktop panel. The reason I found this odd is weather is highly localized in its context. Meaning if we tell the weather widget where we are to get useful weather information, then we are no longer acting in an anonymous fashion on-line and can be linked to a location. However if we do not tell the weather widget our location then the weather information it provides will likely be useless. It's a little like installing a VPN client on a phone and leaving the GPS function enabled, it seems to be self-defeating. I checked, out of curiosity, and discovered the weather widget displays data for New York City.
Installing
There was no obvious way to install the distribution from the live desktop. We can restart the computer and select one of the installer options from the boot menu if we wish to customize and then run Septor on a regular basis.
Septor uses Debian's installer which is, as far as I can tell, virtually unmodified. Apart from skipping some of the base package options, everything from selecting our language and keyboard layout, disk partitioning, and setting up user accounts seemed to be exactly the same experience as what plain Debian provides.
On a side note, I observed that this installer is somewhat unusual in that it does not set the noatime filesystem flag when taking the guided partitioning option. This flag can improve disk performance and life span while disabling it rarely has any negative side-effects, except when using a few specific tools. Most of the systems I have checked in recent years use noatime by default.
Hardware
When I began using Septor it was running in VirtualBox. The distribution provided good performance in the virtual machine. Its boot time was fairly average, but desktop performance was quite good. I believe Septor makes a reasonable choice in disabling file indexing, which I suspect both improves performance and reduces the chance of leaking information. The KDE Plasma desktop properly resized itself automatically to fit the VirtualBox window.
When I switched over to running Septor on my laptop the distribution again ran smoothly. It was able to boot in either Legacy BIOS or UEFI mode. The Plasma desktop was very responsive and all of my hardware was properly detected. The distribution disables taps as clicks on the touchpad by default, however taps (and other gestures) can be enabled in the System Settings panel.
Septor 2021 -- Adjusting desktop settings
(full image size: 420kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
One of the only problems I encountered with the distribution was a minor one. When opening the network manager widget it would show a list of nearby wireless networks. This was to be as expected. However, in busy areas the list of available networks would refresh rapidly, sometimes so quickly I would find myself clicking on the wrong network two or three times as they reshuffled themselves. It was not a serious issue and one which mostly went away while I was home.
Septor is average in its resource usage, requiring about 630MB of RAM when logged into the Plasma desktop. A fresh install of the distribution, should we wish to run it from the hard drive, requires 5.8GB of space, not including swap space.
Applications
Septor ships with a variety of useful software that covers a range of functionality. The distribution offers the Tor Browser and OnionShare, which I will talk about later. The HexChat IRC client is available along with the Thunderbird e-mail client. LibreOffice and KOrganizer are installed along with two contact managers. The KDE Connect software is installed to share information between devices.
Septor 2021 -- The Tor Browser privacy add-ons
(full image size: 326kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The QuiteRSS feed reader is available along with the GNU Image Manipulation Program. The Dolphin file manager is present along with the K3b disc burning software and the VLC media player. The Okular document viewer is installed alongside the Eqonomize accounting program. (Side note to application developers: Please do not name your applications things like Eqonomize, it is hard to tell people how to find your website and it makes my spell checker cry.)
To assist Septor in its goal to provide privacy, the distribution ships with the zuluCrypt volume manager which can access encrypted storage. We are also given the Kleopatra certificate manager and the KGpg encryption tool. Septor ships with the KDE System Settings panel and a full compliment of manual pages. In the background the distribution runs the systemd init software and version 5.9 of the Linux kernel.
Special tools
Earlier I mentioned two special tools which ship with Septor. One is the Tor Browser, a Firefox-based browser that redirects its traffic through the Tor network. The Tor Browser includes several useful add-ons, including the HTTPS Everywhere extension, NoScript, and uBlock Origin. These tools help keep our network traffic encrypted while stripping out a lot of scripts and ads which could otherwise be used to track our on-line activity.
Browsing through the Tor network is mostly anonymous, but it is also slow. Users may also run into firewalls or websites which block traffic from commonly used exit nodes. There are some inconveniences to trying to travel the web anonymously.
I found it interesting that the Tor Browser saves downloads in a directory called "Downloads", but it is not the Downloads directory in our user's home. Instead it is buried several levels down in .local/share/tor-browser_en-US/Browser/Downloads. This made it a little confusing when I went to find items I had downloaded. The web browser is not sandboxed, it can save to other locations in our user's home, it just doesn't. I'm not sure why this default was selected, but it is inconvenient.
Septor 2021 -- Digging down to the default location for saved files
(full image size: 142kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
OnionShare is the other special application Septor includes. The OnionShare application has evolved a lot in recent years. This tool makes it quite easy to share files (and now receive files) over the Tor network. To share files we can pick a few files we want to send out to someone. OnionShare then creates a unique URL for us. We can copy this URL and send it to someone or post it on-line. The other person then connects to this URL through the Tor Browser. Our computer waits and serves up the file (or files) to the first person to connect to our URL. Once the files have been downloaded the service closes, preventing additional people from obtaining the file.
Septor 2021 -- Sharing files over OnionShare
(full image size: 342kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Receiving files through OnionShare works much the same way. We can click a button to enable receiving files through OnionShare at which point we are given a custom URL. Anyone we give this special URL to can open it in the Tor Browser and it will display a web page that accepts file uploads. Any files people choose to send us are stored in the OnionShare directory in our home. Each file is saved under its own set of sub-directories stamped with the current date and time. We can click another button in OnionShare to terminate the receiving process.
Septor 2021 -- Receiving files through OnionShare
(full image size: 362kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
In the past I sometimes had trouble getting OnionShare to work properly, but it was all smooth sailing this time and the application worked beautifully. I like that we can both share and receive files without worrying about setting up a domain, using a chat program, or adjusting firewall settings.
Software management
When it comes to browsing and sharing files anonymously, I feel Septor comes with just about everything it needs. We have ways to encrypt (or decrypt) files, browse anonymously, transfer files, and chat on-line. We can also work with encrypted storage volumes. One of the few items I felt might be missing was a tool to scrub meta data from files. Should we wish to install new software or update existing packages we can use the APT command line tools or the Synaptic graphical package manager. Synaptic may not be much to look at, but it handled installing, removing, and upgrading software. It also allows us to configure repositories. I used Synaptic a few times and found it ran smoothly with no surprises.
Septor 2021 -- Installing new packages with Synaptic and using the Dolphin file manager
(full image size: 430kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Conclusions
I went into my trial with Septor expecting to have access to most of the same tools I would with Tails and to have roughly the same experience. However, I found (to my pleasure) that I was mistaken. While Tails is a well put together distribution and quite easy to use and set up as a live distribution, I found Septor to be more accessible and, in a sense, more familiar.
On the surface this may be counter-intuitive. Tails has a smaller download, lots of wonderful documentation, and a more simple interface. The two projects have the same Debian base, include much of the same key functionality and are about evenly matched when it comes to memory usage. So what makes me enjoy Septor more?
What I think it boils down to is Tails is a great appliance. A person can download Tails to a USB stick, plug it into a computer, and have a simple, streamlined, anonymous web browsing experience. Then we can unplug the stick and the appliance experience is done.
While Septor can be used in this manner - written to a thumb drive and used as a live distribution - I feel Septor is less like an appliance and more of a general purpose tool. Septor has a wider array of applications, it is designed to be installed to a hard drive if we want to use it full-time. While Tails has a very streamlined, appliance-like desktop, courtesy of GNOME, Septor has a very flexible, classic-style desktop through KDE Plasma. In my tests Septor's desktop was much more responsive than Tails and its range of customization makes it a welcome option for people like me who like to adjust tools to suit them.
In short, for people who want a temporary live distribution they can use once (or on-demand) and then stop using, then Tails is probably the better choice. For people with less computing experience or who want an uncluttered, guided experience, Tails is probably better. However, for people who want to install their anonymous tools locally, or who want to customize their desktop, or who need more tools pre-installed, then Septor is probably the better fit.
* * * * *
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
Septor has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.6/10 from 5 review(s).
Have you used Septor? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Manjaro to be PinePhone's default operating system, Slackware prepares for a new release, UBports unveils new Devices page, Mint urges users apply security updates
The PinePhone has attracted a lot of attention over the past few years as an open and friendly platform for mobile operating systems, including Linux-based distributions. Several Linux projects have been ported to the PinePhone, including UBports and Manjaro Linux. The latter is now considered the default operating system with which new PinePhone devices will be bundled. "A question that I frequently receive concerns the default operating system and user interface that will ship on the PinePhone. Today we are very pleased to announce that the PinePhone will ship with Plasma Mobile on a Manjaro ARM base from this point on. We have a long-standing relationship with Manjaro and KDE Community, and both projects have supported us and our efforts since the dawn of PINE64. I'm not sure if I wrote about this publicly in the past, but the promise that Plasma Mobile held in its early stages was the deciding factor for us to proceed with creating a Linux smartphone in the first place. Needless to say, we have been excited to see the UI environment mature and flourish on our platform over the past 12 months. Manjaro is our core partner, offering support for all our flagship Linux devices, including the ROCKPro64 and the Pinebook Pro. Their work on the PinePhone has been indispensable, and their current OS images are among the best and most fully-featured for the platform."
* * * * *
Fans of the world's oldest surviving Linux distribution received some interesting news this week. The Slackware changelog hinted at an upcoming release, following a large rebuild of packages. "Here we go again... upgraded to glibc-2.33 and one last mass rebuild for Slackware 15.0. The only packages upgraded in this batch are glibc and the kernels - everything else is just a rebuild against the new glibc. Not rebuilt in this batch: devs (best to just leave this alone), glibc-zoneinfo, kernel-firmware, rust, linux-faqs, linux-howtos, aspell-en, mozilla-firefox, mozilla-thunderbird, and seamonkey. There's a new Rust compiler but Firefox and Thunderbird will need to be patched to use it, so we'll hold off on those until they're ready for the new Rust either with patches or new upstream releases. Until we have that and a few more scheduled upgrades I'm not quite ready to call this beta yet, but you can call it 15.0-alpha1." The most recent stable version of Slackware Linux, 14.2, was published over four years ago and 14.1 was released about three years before that.
* * * * *
The UBports team has launched a new web page which lists the project's supported mobile devices and devices which are currently works in progress. The page currently lists 58 devices along with a status board showing what is working and what is not on each piece of hardware. "The devices supporting UT (now 55+) are listed there and a progress bar has been provided with each, which will hopefully reflect more clearly how it delivers in terms of everyday practicality. For each component feature that is listed as not working, you can now click on that feature to read the bug report. Of course for this to work as it should, each device porter or their representative needs to keep their own progress data up to date on their device page. We still need to do some work in promoting that but the mechanisms for doing it are now very simple."
* * * * *
The Linux Mint team have published a blog post with some uncomfortable statistics about how many users of their distribution are not keeping up with security updates and are, often, running unsupported versions of Mint. "We can't measure anything with precision because there's nothing in your computer which sends data to us and we don't configure Linux Mint in a way that even allows us to count how many users we have. In other words, there is nothing in Linux Mint that is common to all users and that we could rely on to establish statistics. That being said, we do have a few metrics we can measure. They give us stats which only tell one particular aspect of the story and they are unreliable and imprecise but do tell us something nonetheless. About 30% of users apply updates in less than a week." The post goes on to provide instructions for upgrading Mint safely using Timeshift and upgrade tools.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Using older kernels on Ubuntu LTS releases
Not-wanting-to-upgrade asks: I'm running Ubuntu 20.04 on one of the family computers. I set it up such that non-sudo users would get software updates, and accordingly I've mostly forgotten about it since. However, the automatic kernel update from 5.4 to 5.8 unexpectedly made the computer wonky enough to be unusable unless the alternate 5.4 boot option is selected in GRUB.
Rather than making the family manually choose 5.4 upon every boot up, how would someone go about blacklisting 5.8 but not affecting the computer from automatically receiving future non-5.8 kernel updates e.g. 5.10? Alternatively, and perhaps preferably, since 5.4 is an LTS kernel, how would someone go about blacklisting any non-5.4 kernel updates but still automatically receiving future 5.4 subversion kernel updates?
DistroWatch answers: As some of our readers may know, Canonical publishes new versions of the Ubuntu distribution every six months. Once every two years the company launches a long-term support (LTS) version which is supported for five years. These LTS releases are the ones most people should be using, especially if they are less technically inclined.
These LTS versions (16.04, 18.04, 20.04, etc) receive media refreshes around twice a year. The refreshed install media includes critical bug fixes and new hardware support (in the form of newer kernel versions) in an effort to make installing the distribution on newer computers quicker and safer. The newer kernels also support more recent hardware. This process of providing up to date hardware support with a newer kernel is discussed on the Ubuntu wiki and is referred to as hardware enablement (HWE).
Canonical's plan to provide more up to date hardware support is, on the whole, a good move and convenient for people with new computers. However, as the above question points out, newer kernels can introduce instability where things were running smoothly before. So how do you avoid upgrading to the latest HWE kernel while continuing to get minor updates to the older kernel your system originally came with?
Ubuntu LTS releases ship with two meta-packages for the kernel (packages which pull in other or additional packages). The older, stable kernel is called linux-image-generic while the newer kernel with additional hardware support is called linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04. Note the newer HWE kernel includes a version number which will be specific to the version of Ubuntu you are running. If you had Ubuntu 18.04 installed then the HWE kernel package would be called linux-image-generic-hwe-18.04. To stick with the older kernel all you will need to do is make sure the older kernel's meta-package is still installed and then remove the newer (HWE) kernel package. You can do this with two commands. First, make sure your computer is booted into the older, generic kernel. This is version 5.4 of the kernel in this example. Then run the following two commands:
sudo apt-get install linux-image-generic linux-headers-generic
sudo apt-get remove linux-image-generic-hwe-20.04 linux-headers-generic-hwe-20.04
These lines first make sure the regular, original kernel package is marked as installed. This package should already be in place and you will probably just see a message indicating the package is installed and already at its latest version. The second line then removes the HWE kernel which was causing the stability problems.
From this point on the system should only apply updates to the older kernel during package upgrades and not install newer versions of the HWE kernel.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
siduction 21.1.0
Ferdinand Thommes has announced the release of siduction 21.1.0, a brand-new version of the project's set of rolling-release distributions based on Debian's "unstable" branch with a choice of Cinnamon, KDE Plasma, LXDE, LXQt and Xfce desktops: "The siduction team is proud to present siduction 2021.1. After a long hiatus of almost three years, we are happy to be back with an official release. This one is dubbed 'C-Blues' and it should be easy to guess what the 'C' stands for in these troubled times. The flavors we offer for siduction 2021.1.0 are KDE Plasma 5.20.5, LXQt 0.16.0, Cinnamon 4.8.6, Xfce 4.16, LXDE 10, X.Org and noX. GNOME and MATE did not make it this time. They might be back at some point or not. Of course, they are still installable from the repository. The released images are a snapshot of Debian 'unstable' from 2021-02-07. They are enhanced with some useful packages and scripts, an installer based on Calamares and a custom-patched version of the Linux kernel 5.10.15 and systemd at 247.3." Continue to the release notes for further details.
siduction 21.1.0 -- Exploring the application menu
(full image size: 3.9MB, resolution: 2560x1600 pixels)
Devuan GNU+Linux 3.1.0
The Devuan GNU+Linux team have announced the availability of a new point release of their distribution. The new point release, Devuan GNU+Linux 3.1.0, now supports three init options at install time: OpenRC, SysV init, and runit. The installer now also allows users to install an alternative bootloader (lilo) instead of GRUB. The release announcement states: "Devuan Beowulf 3.1.0 point release installer ISOs, desktop-live, and minimal-live ISOs are now available. Note that ARM and virtual images are not updated in this release. What's new in this point release: The installer now offers a choice of three init systems. runit has been added, along with sysvinit and OpenRC. If you would like to select an alternate bootloader (lilo) or exclude non-free firmware, you must select one of the Expert install options." Further information can be found in the project's release notes.
Q4OS 3.14
The Q4OS team have announced a new version of their lightweight, Debian-based distribution. The Q4OS distribution is available in two editions, featuring the KDE Plasma and Trinity desktop environments. The Q4OS developers have introduced an automatic guide for VirtualBox guest additions along with a tool for selecting the default web browser. The project's release announcement for Q4OS 3.14 reads: "An update to Q4OS 3 Centaurus LTS has been released. The new 3.14 Series receives the recent Debian Buster 10.8 update, updated Debian stable kernel and important security and bug fixes. This update brings along a few Q4OS specific improvements, for example Virtualbox guest additions automatic installation guide, a convenient script for setting the default web browser for Plamsa as well as Trinity desktop and cumulative upgrade covering all the changes from the previous stable Q4OS 3 Centaurus release. Current users only need to perform a regular update to get all the new features. Anyone is welcome to download installation media images from the Downloads section of the Q4OS website."
Tiny Core Linux 12.0
Tiny Core Linux is one of the world's smallest Linux distributions which uses the BusyBox userland utilities. The project's latest release, Tiny Core Linux 12.0, introduces a number of new fixes, package updates, and updated hardware support. "Changelog for 12.0: kernel updated to 5.10.3, glibc updated to 2.32 gcc updated to 10.2.0, binutils updated to 2.35.1, e2fsprogs base libs/apps updated to 1.45.6, util-linux base libs/apps updated to 2.36.1, busybox updated to 1.33.0, busybox patched to load more than 9 extensions, busybox patched to remove 'Module has invalid ELF header', tc-config: no gratuitous permissions changes in /opt from bdantas, tc-functions: version changes from andyj, shutdown.sh: clarifying comment, busybox-aliases: additions from bdantas, filetool.sh: comments from bdantas, tce-setup: remove neeedless timestamp from bdantas, tce-config: more precise /opt copying from bdantas, tce-config: rename autoscan from polikuo, tc-config: similar awk rounding...." Further details can be found in the distribution's release announcement. The distribution is available in three editions: a minimal Core, a desktop flavour called TinyCore, and a full installation image called CorePlus.
pfSense 2.5.0
pfSense is a free, open source customized distribution of FreeBSD specifically tailored for use as a firewall and router that is entirely managed via web interface. The project's latest release, pfSense 2.5.0, is based on FreeBSD 12.2. The release announcement highlights changes in the new version: "Base OS upgraded to FreeBSD 12.2-STABLE, OpenSSL upgraded to 1.1.1, pPerformance improvements. Kernel WireGuard implementation, as mentioned in a previous WireGuard blog post. WireGuard is a new VPN Layer 3 protocol designed for speed and simplicity. The pfSense documentation site includes information on how to configure WireGuard as well as example configuration recipes. IPsec enhancements: Configuration for the strongSwan IPsec backend was changed from the deprecated ipsec.conf/stroke format to the new swanctl/VICI format. Various improvements to tunnel configuration, including better options for lifetime and rekey to avoid duplicate security associations."
Mabox Linux 21.02
Mabox Linux is a Manjaro-based rolling release distribution. Mabox Linux features the Openbox window manager as its default interface and provides a welcome screen with access to utilities which add additional software to the operating system. The project's latest snashot, Mabox Linux 21.02, updates the default kernel to the latest LTS kernel release, fixes memory usage statistics in the Conky panel, and offers both free and non-free driver options at boot time. "I am pleased to announce a new release of Mabox Linux 21.02 Foltest. Mabox is a distribution based on Manjaro, with a preconfigured lightweight Openbox window manager and several specially developed programs and tools. Works great even on weaker computers. Mabox 21.02 Foltest is equipped with the latest 5.10 LTS kernel, of course you can easily install other kernels and decide which one to run at boot time. The installer offers the option of choosing free or proprietary drivers - when booting, select the free or non-free option. This release includes a number of fixes, new/updated packages and new features." The release announcement has further details.
Mabox Linux 21.02 -- Running the Openbox window manager
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1600x900 pixels)
Netrunner 21.01
Netrunner 21.01, an updated version of the project's desktop Linux distribution based on Debian's "stable" branch, but featuring the latest LTS (long-term support) kernel, has been released: "The Netrunner team is happy to announce the release of Netrunner 21.01 'XOXO'. This version is based on the current Debian 10.7 ('Buster') and it comes with better support for modern hardware thanks to Linux kernel 5.9.15 from Debian backports. Netrunner 21.01 ships with all the latest security updates provided by Debian and a new beautiful wallpaper showing the new code name of this release. With the activated Debian backports repository, we provide updated firmware for WiFi and ethernet chips as well as improved printer drivers to allow more modern hardware support. Firefox-ESR and Thunderbird were updated to the latest stable LTS versions, which get regular security updates provided by Debian security. Netrunner maintains its gorgeous look and feel from the previous version based upon Breeze Window decoration and red color cursor." Read the rest of the release announcement for more information and screenshots.
* * * * *
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: 2,347
- Total data uploaded: 36.3TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Running Hardware Enablement kernels
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about Hardware Enablement (HWE) kernels. These special kernels include updated driver support to allow the distribution to run on more modern hardware. These kernels can be useful to people installing a distribution on new computers, but may introduce regressions in functionality or performance, resulting in some people preferring to run older (generic) versions of the kernel. We would like to know if you run an HWE kernel on your distribution. Let us know about your experiences with HWE kernels in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on connecting devices with KDE Connect in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
Do you run a HWE kernel?
| I run a HWE kernel: | 149 (13%) |
| I run an older/generic kernel: | 244 (22%) |
| My fixed release distro does not offer HWE: | 106 (9%) |
| My distro is a rolling release: | 344 (31%) |
| I do not know if I run a HWE kernel: | 273 (24%) |
|
|
| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 1 March 2021. 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: 1, value: US$7.93) |
|
|
|
 bc1qtede6f7adcce4kjpgx0e5j68wwgtdxrek2qvc4  lnurl1dp68gurn8ghj7ampd3kx2ar0veekzar0wd5xjtnrdakj7tnhv4kxctttdehhwm30d3h82unvwqhhxarpw3jkc7tzw4ex6cfexyfua2nr  86fA3qPTeQtNb2k1vLwEQaAp3XxkvvvXt69gSG5LGunXXikK9koPWZaRQgfFPBPWhMgXjPjccy9LA9xRFchPWQAnPvxh5Le paypal.me/distrowatchweekly • patreon.com/distrowatch |
|
| Linux Foundation Training |
|
|
| 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 1048 (2023-12-04): openSUSE MicroOS, the transition from X11 to Wayland, Red Hat phasing out X11 packages, UBports making mobile development easier |
| • Issue 1047 (2023-11-27): GhostBSD 23.10.1, Why Linux uses swap when memory is free, Ubuntu Budgie may benefit from Wayland work in Xfce, early issues with FreeBSD 14.0 |
| • Issue 1046 (2023-11-20): Slackel 7.7 "Openbox", restricting CPU usage, Haiku improves font handling and software centre performance, Canonical launches MicroCloud |
| • Issue 1045 (2023-11-13): Fedora 39, how to trust software packages, ReactOS booting with UEFI, elementary OS plans to default to Wayland, Mir gaining ability to split work across video cards |
| • Issue 1044 (2023-11-06): Porteus 5.01, disabling IPv6, applications unique to a Linux distro, Linux merges bcachefs, OpenELA makes source packages available |
| • Issue 1043 (2023-10-30): Murena Two with privacy switches, where old files go when packages are updated, UBports on Volla phones, Mint testing Cinnamon on Wayland, Peppermint releases ARM build |
| • Issue 1042 (2023-10-23): Ubuntu Cinnamon compared with Linux Mint, extending battery life on Linux, Debian resumes /usr merge, Canonical publishes fixed install media |
| • Issue 1041 (2023-10-16): FydeOS 17.0, Dr.Parted 23.09, changing UIDs, Fedora partners with Slimbook, GNOME phasing out X11 sessions, Ubuntu revokes 23.10 install media |
| • Issue 1040 (2023-10-09): CROWZ 5.0, changing the location of default directories, Linux Mint updates its Edge edition, Murena crowdfunding new privacy phone, Debian publishes new install media |
| • Issue 1039 (2023-10-02): Zenwalk Current, finding the duration of media files, Peppermint OS tries out new edition, COSMIC gains new features, Canonical reports on security incident in Snap store |
| • Issue 1038 (2023-09-25): Mageia 9, trouble-shooting launchers, running desktop Linux in the cloud, New documentation for Nix, Linux phasing out ReiserFS, GNU celebrates 40 years |
| • Issue 1037 (2023-09-18): Bodhi Linux 7.0.0, finding specific distros and unified package managemnt, Zevenet replaced by two new forks, openSUSE introduces Slowroll branch, Fedora considering dropping Plasma X11 session |
| • Issue 1036 (2023-09-11): SDesk 2023.08.12, hiding command line passwords, openSUSE shares contributor survery results, Ubuntu plans seamless disk encryption, GNOME 45 to break extension compatibility |
| • Issue 1035 (2023-09-04): Debian GNU/Hurd 2023, PCLinuxOS 2023.07, do home users need a firewall, AlmaLinux introduces new repositories, Rocky Linux commits to RHEL compatibility, NetBSD machine runs unattended for nine years, Armbian runs wallpaper contest |
| • Issue 1034 (2023-08-28): Void 20230628, types of memory usage, FreeBSD receives port of Linux NVIDIA driver, Fedora plans improved theme handling for Qt applications, Canonical's plans for Ubuntu |
| • Issue 1033 (2023-08-21): MiniOS 20230606, system user accounts, how Red Hat clones are moving forward, Haiku improves WINE performance, Debian turns 30 |
| • Issue 1032 (2023-08-14): MX Linux 23, positioning new windows on the desktop, Linux Containers adopts LXD fork, Oracle, SUSE, and CIQ form OpenELA |
| • Issue 1031 (2023-08-07): Peppermint OS 2023-07-01, preventing a file from being changed, Asahi Linux partners with Fedora, Linux Mint plans new releases |
| • Issue 1030 (2023-07-31): Solus 4.4, Linux Mint 21.2, Debian introduces RISC-V support, Ubuntu patches custom kernel bugs, FreeBSD imports OpenSSL 3 |
| • Issue 1029 (2023-07-24): Running Murena on the Fairphone 4, Flatpak vs Snap sandboxing technologies, Redox OS plans to borrow Linux drivers to expand hardware support, Debian updates Bookworm media |
| • Issue 1028 (2023-07-17): KDE Connect; Oracle, SUSE, and AlmaLinux repsond to Red Hat's source code policy change, KaOS issues media fix, Slackware turns 30; security and immutable distributions |
| • Issue 1027 (2023-07-10): Crystal Linux 2023-03-16, StartOS (embassyOS 0.3.4.2), changing options on a mounted filesystem, Murena launches Fairphone 4 in North America, Fedora debates telemetry for desktop team |
| • Issue 1026 (2023-07-03): Kumander Linux 1.0, Red Hat changing its approach to sharing source code, TrueNAS offers SMB Multichannel, Zorin OS introduces upgrade utility |
| • Issue 1025 (2023-06-26): KaOS with Plasma 6, information which can leak from desktop environments, Red Hat closes door on sharing RHEL source code, SUSE introduces new security features |
| • Issue 1024 (2023-06-19): Debian 12, a safer way to use dd, Debian releases GNU/Hurd 2023, Ubuntu 22.10 nears its end of life, FreeBSD turns 30 |
| • Issue 1023 (2023-06-12): openSUSE 15.5 Leap, the differences between independent distributions, openSUSE lengthens Leap life, Murena offers new phone for North America |
| • Issue 1022 (2023-06-05): GetFreeOS 2023.05.01, Slint 15.0-3, Liya N4Si, cleaning up crowded directories, Ubuntu plans Snap-based variant, Red Hat dropping LireOffice RPM packages |
| • Issue 1021 (2023-05-29): rlxos GNU/Linux, colours in command line output, an overview of Void's unique features, how to use awk, Microsoft publishes a Linux distro |
| • Issue 1020 (2023-05-22): UBports 20.04, finding another machine's IP address, finding distros with a specific kernel, Debian prepares for Bookworm |
| • Issue 1019 (2023-05-15): Rhino Linux (Beta), checking which applications reply on a package, NethServer reborn, System76 improving application responsiveness |
| • Issue 1018 (2023-05-08): Fedora 38, finding relevant manual pages, merging audio files, Fedora plans new immutable edition, Mint works to fix Secure Boot issues |
| • Issue 1017 (2023-05-01): Xubuntu 23.04, Debian elects Project Leaders and updates media, systemd to speed up restarts, Guix System offering ground-up source builds, where package managers install files |
| • Issue 1016 (2023-04-24): Qubes OS 4.1.2, tracking bandwidth usage, Solus resuming development, FreeBSD publishes status report, KaOS offers preview of Plasma 6 |
| • Issue 1015 (2023-04-17): Manjaro Linux 22.0, Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Arch Linux powering PINE64 tablets, Ubuntu offering live patching on HWE kernels, gaining compression on ex4 |
| • Issue 1014 (2023-04-10): Quick looks at carbonOS, LibreELEC, and Kodi, Mint polishes themes, Fedora rolls out more encryption plans, elementary OS improves sideloading experience |
| • Issue 1013 (2023-04-03): Alpine Linux 3.17.2, printing manual pages, Ubuntu Cinnamon becomes official flavour, Endeavour OS plans for new installer, HardenedBSD plans for outage |
| • Issue 1012 (2023-03-27): siduction 22.1.1, protecting privacy from proprietary applications, GNOME team shares new features, Canonical updates Ubuntu 20.04, politics and the Linux kernel |
| • Issue 1011 (2023-03-20): Serpent OS, Security Onion 2.3, Gentoo Live, replacing the scp utility, openSUSE sees surge in downloads, Debian runs elction with one candidate |
| • Issue 1010 (2023-03-13): blendOS 2023.01.26, keeping track of which files a package installs, improved network widget coming to elementary OS, Vanilla OS changes its base distro |
| • Issue 1009 (2023-03-06): Nemo Mobile and the PinePhone, matching the performance of one distro on another, Linux Mint adds performance boosts and security, custom Ubuntu and Debian builds through Cubic |
| • Issue 1008 (2023-02-27): elementary OS 7.0, the benefits of boot environments, Purism offers lapdock for Librem 5, Ubuntu community flavours directed to drop Flatpak support for Snap |
| • Issue 1007 (2023-02-20): helloSystem 0.8.0, underrated distributions, Solus team working to repair their website, SUSE testing Micro edition, Canonical publishes real-time edition of Ubuntu 22.04 |
| • Issue 1006 (2023-02-13): Playing music with UBports on a PinePhone, quick command line and shell scripting questions, Fedora expands third-party software support, Vanilla OS adds Nix package support |
| • Issue 1005 (2023-02-06): NuTyX 22.12.0 running CDE, user identification numbers, Pop!_OS shares COSMIC progress, Mint makes keyboard and mouse options more accessible |
| • Issue 1004 (2023-01-30): OpenMandriva ROME, checking the health of a disk, Debian adopting OpenSnitch, FreeBSD publishes status report |
| • Issue 1003 (2023-01-23): risiOS 37, mixing package types, Fedora seeks installer feedback, Sparky offers easier persistence with USB writer |
| • Issue 1002 (2023-01-16): Vanilla OS 22.10, Nobara Project 37, verifying torrent downloads, Haiku improvements, HAMMER2 being ports to NetBSD |
| • Issue 1001 (2023-01-09): Arch Linux, Ubuntu tests new system installer, porting KDE software to OpenBSD, verifying files copied properly |
| • Issue 1000 (2023-01-02): Our favourite projects of all time, Fedora trying out unified kernel images and trying to speed up shutdowns, Slackware tests new kernel, detecting what is taking up disk space |
| • Issue 999 (2022-12-19): Favourite distributions of 2022, Fedora plans Budgie spin, UBports releasing security patches for 16.04, Haiku working on new ports |
| • Issue 998 (2022-12-12): OpenBSD 7.2, Asahi Linux enages video hardware acceleration on Apple ARM computers, Manjaro drops proprietary codecs from Mesa package |
| • Issue 997 (2022-12-05): CachyOS 221023 and AgarimOS, working with filenames which contain special characters, elementary OS team fixes delta updates, new features coming to Xfce |
| • Issue 996 (2022-11-28): Void 20221001, remotely shutting down a machine, complex aliases, Fedora tests new web-based installer, Refox OS running on real hardware |
| • Issue 995 (2022-11-21): Fedora 37, swap files vs swap partitions, Unity running on Arch, UBports seeks testers, Murena adds support for more devices |
| • Issue 994 (2022-11-14): Redcore Linux 2201, changing the terminal font size, Fedora plans Phosh spin, openSUSE publishes on-line manual pages, disabling Snap auto-updates |
| • Full list of all issues |
| 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.
|
| Shells.com |
Your own personal Linux computer in the cloud, available on any device. Supported operating systems include Android, Debian, Fedora, KDE neon, Kubuntu, Linux Mint, Manjaro and Ubuntu, ready in minutes.
Starting at US$4.95 per month, 7-day money-back guarantee
|
| Random Distribution | 
Sophos UTM
Sophos UTM (formerly Astaro Security Gateway) offers an integrated software solution that provides superior performance in an all-in-one firewall. Its hardened operating system, stateful packet inspection, content filtering (virus & surf protection), application proxies and IPsec based VPN provides a powerful solution to today's security issues. It was designed to maximise networks security without compromising its performance enabling telecommuters, branch offices, customers and suppliers to safely share critical business information. Our proprietary user interface, WebAdmin allows ease of use and manageability of all open source firewall components, as well as the Up2Date service via the Internet. It was easy to install with all components on one CD achieving simple implementation and integration to existing network environments.
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.
|
|
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
