 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 912, 12 April 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 15th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
One of the more recent additions to the DistroWatch database is a project called Venom Linux. Venom is an independent, rolling release distribution with a focus towards minimalism. We take Venom for a test drive this week and report on the experience in our Feature Story. In our Questions and Answers column we talk about what a kernel panic is and what a person might be able to do to work around it. We also discuss modern Linux filesystems and why someone might switch from one filesystem to another. Do you have a preferred Linux filesystem? Let us know which filesystem you trust with your data in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about Debian's annual Project Leader election and link to the platforms of both candidates for Debian's leadership. We also share news that Oracle has lost its API infringement case against Google and link to a debate over whether the aging FTP service should be kept in FreeBSD's core system. We also report on FreeBSD making ARM64 a top tier architecture. Plus 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:
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (12MB) and MP3 (9MB) formats.
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| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Venom Linux 20210312
Venom Linux is an independently-developed, minimal, rolling-release distribution inspired by CRUX. It targets experienced Linux users. Venom uses SysV init as the main init system and BSD-like ports as software packages which are managed by a custom package manager. The distribution's package manager is called scratch.
Venom is built for 64-bit (x86_64) machines exclusively. The project is available in one edition which can be downloaded as a 1.3GB ISO. Booting from the supplied media boots directly into the Openbox window manager. A panel sits at the bottom of the screen and offers us access to a few quick-launch icons, a virtual desktop widget, and a clock. We can right-click on empty space on the desktop to open the application menu.
Venom Linux 20210312 -- The Openbox application menu
(full image size: 939kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
The live desktop provides a very minimal environment. There are no status widgets, welcome screen, or desktop icons. After exploring the live session for a while and confirming the system runs smoothly we can install Venom by running its installer, venom-installer, from the command line or from the application menu.
Installing
Venom's installer uses a series of text-based menus. We can perform the steps of the installer in the order of our choosing. The installer somewhat resembles the ones used by Void and Slackware Linux. We are first asked to select our keyboard's layout from a list of short, cryptic names. We are then given the chance to use either of the console-based cfdisk or fdisk partitioning tools to set up the disk. Once partitions have been created we are given the chance to pick a filesystem for the root partition. Options include Btrfs, ext2/3/4, Reiserfs, and XFS. I decided to use ext4 for this trial.
The following screens asks us if we would like to enable a swap partition, and to create a root password. We can also make up a username and password for our regular user account. The final step allows us to choose where the GRUB boot loader will be installed. The Venom installer then copies its packages to the hard drive and configures the local copy of the operating system. When it finishes we are advised to restart the computer.
Early impressions
My fresh copy of Venom Linux booted to a graphical login page. The sign in box looks to be truncated around the sides, despite there being a lot of empty space around it on the screen, and the greeting welcomes us with "Hellc LogiI".
Once signed into the Openbox session we are returned to the same empty, responsive session experienced on the live media. As there are no notifications or welcome messages we can dive straight into exploring the system and tackling tasks.
Hardware
I started out by trying Venom in a VirtualBox environment. Venom boots quickly and ran smoothly in the virtual machine. Openbox was pleasantly responsive. The only issue I had while trying Venom in VirtualBox was the Openbox window manager would not dynamically resize to match the VirtualBox window's resolution. This, combined with an apparent lack of configuration tools for handling screen resolution, left me with a very low-resolution graphical environment while I was using the virtual machine.
Venom Linux 20210312 -- Browsing alternative window manager themes
(full image size: 738kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
When I switched over to running Venom on my laptop my screen resolution was properly detected. Openbox was highly responsive on physical hardware. Audio worked out of the box as did wireless networking.
Venom is an unusually lightweight distribution. Signing into the Openbox environment takes just 87MB of memory and a fresh install consumes just 4GB of disk space. However, Venom was strangely aggressive with my CPU. The distribution rarely dropped below 8% to 10% CPU usage on my laptop with nothing but a idle terminal open. Most distributions I test idle at about 1% or less when logged into a desktop session. The extra CPU was being consumed by the X.Org server and picom, suggesting a bug with the compositor. This meant Venom consumed almost no memory while causing my laptop to run hotter than normal.
Venom Linux 20210312 -- Monitoring CPU usage
(full image size: 777kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Included software
The distribution ships with a small collection of applications. The Firefox web browser is included along with the Geany IDE. The Leafpad text editor and PCManFM file manager are installed for us. The GParted partition manager is included along with a few tools for adjusting the look of Openbox.
There are two compilers, Clang and the GNU Compiler Collection, installed for us. These and some related developer tools assist in building software and packages. I'll talk more about acquiring packages later. Manual pages are included by default.
Venom Linux 20210312 -- Checking Firefox's extensions
(full image size: 91kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Venom ships with xterm as the default virtual terminal. The xterm colours are set to display dark blue and white on a charcoal background. I found this difficult to read and the terminal doesn't enable scrollbars by default, making it an unusually limited terminal. I ended up installing LXTerminal which uses a higher contrast white-on-black font and includes all the standard terminal features.
When I started out using Venom on my laptop I wasn't sure if I would be able to get on-line as there are no network connection utilities in the application menu and no network connection widget on the panel. I found the distribution ships with the Network Manager text-based wizard (nmtui) for connecting to wireless networks. The Venom Linux download page says, at the time of writing, that the distribution runs the runit init software. This information turned out to be incorrect as Venom runs the SysV init software. In the background I found version 5.4 of the Linux kernel.
To perform administrator actions we can either login as the root user or use sudo which automatically enables admin tasks for the regular user we create at install time.
Venom Linux 20210312 -- The PCManFM file manager
(full image size: 442kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
Venom does not ship with any office suit, image viewer, or image editor. There is no screenshot utility, no printer support, and no multimedia support. I could view YouTube videos in Firefox, but the web browser and terminal supplied virtually all of the distribution's out of the box functionality. On a related note, audio worked on Venom, though there is no volume control on the desktop. We are limited to in-application volume management or installing a mixer.
Something I found odd was right-clicking on the desktop panel would cause it to disappear. I'm not sure if this is by design or right-clicking on the panel caused it to crash. Either way it was frustrating to accidentally click the panel instead of in a window or an empty piece of desktop and have my task switcher disappear.
Package management
Package management on Venom is handled by a command line tool the project's website refers to as scratchpkg, though the command line program is invoked as scratch. We can run scratch to find packages in the repositories, download new applications, see information on installed items, build packages from source code, and remove old items. The command line syntax is fairly straight forward. To provide a few examples, running "scratch search" finds a package, "scratch install" downloads new software, "scratch remove" deletes an existing package, and "scratch installed" lists items already on our system. Perhaps most importantly, the "scratch help" command lists all available command line options.
Venom Linux 20210312 -- Getting a list of installed software from scratch
(full image size: 733kB, resolution: 1366x768 pixels)
It appears as though all packages (or at least all the ones I downloaded) are built from source code. Each time I downloaded a new package it would result in scratch configuring and compiling new software for my system. This was fine for smaller tools, but larger programs with multiple dependencies can take several minutes to an hour to build. This made setting up Venom with useful software a unpleasantly long process.
Unfortunately, a lot of software I would normally install was not available. The distribution's repositories are still quite small and are lacking a lot of common tools, across a variety of categories. For instance, I could find no office suite, no games (though Steam is available), no nmap scanner, no Falkon web browser, no SoX sound sample translator. I did find some media tools and applications, such as VLC and FFmpeg, though the latter failed to build.
Conclusions
I believe the Venom Linux project is still relatively young and, I suspect, the work of one developer. With this in mind it is perhaps unfair to judge the project harshly as it seems to still be finding its feet. Some aspects of the design appeal to me. I have a growing fondness for relatively lightweight distributions and ones which keep the under-the-hood components simple. However, I think Venom takes this to an uncomfortable extreme.
The project currently has very little documentation, relatively few packages available, few utilities most people would need to get set up, such as a graphical network connection manager, an office suite and a full featured terminal. The distribution is surprisingly light in memory which is great, but it was unusually hard on my CPU.
The package manager mostly worked well, apart from failing to compile one package, but the fact it needs to build packages from source code is deal breaker for me. It would be faster for me to go into town, buy another computer, and install another distribution featuring LibreOffice on it than wait for Venom to compile the suite from source.
All of this is to say that while most of what Venom provides works, it provides very little. Some people, myself included, can appreciate a minimal starting foundation, but I do like to have some more basics like volume control and printer support easily available.
Venom is, as the project's website says, targeting people who are advanced Linux users, folks who want to use the command line, people who want to build from the ground up. In this way it's not dissimilar to CRUX or Arch Linux. However, it offers fewer tools, documentation, and packages than the latter, making it a more niche distribution.
* * * * *
Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Venom Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 9.5/10 from 8 review(s).
Have you used Venom Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Oracle loses court case over copyrighting APIs, FreeBSD developers debate FTP service in core and increase support for ARM64, Debian's Project Leader elections underway
The Supreme Court of the United States handed down a verdict this week which was bad news for Oracle, but good news for the rest of the software community. Years ago Oracle sued Google over the use of Java APIs which Google had implemented in Android. Oracle sought over $8 billion dollars in damages for the matching APIs which define what software does, though not how software accomplishes a task. A win for Oracle would have essentially made re-implementing any software functionality in a new program, even one written from scratch, illegal. Reuters reports: "In a 6-2 decision, the justices overturned a lower court's ruling that Google's inclusion of Oracle's software code in Android did not constitute a fair use under U.S. copyright law. Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the majority, said that allowing Oracle to enforce a copyright on its code would harm the public by making it a 'lock limiting the future creativity of new programs. Oracle alone would hold the key.'"
* * * * *
Using FTP to transfer files is a practise which has generally fallen out of favour in the past 20 years as FTP is both insecure and can unnecessarily complicates firewall rules. These days servers have generally switched to using more secure methods such as OpenSSH and HTTPS for transferring files. With this in mind, Ed Maste proposed moving the aging FTP server software (ftpd) out of FreeBSD's core and making it a separate package administrators could install if needed. This would reduce the size of the core FreeBSD system and remove insecure software unless specifically needed and installed by the administrator. The proposal has been met with strong opposition from FreeBSD members who still use the insecure FTP protocol and the idea was ultimately retracted.
The FreeBSD team has announced 64-bit ARM hardware will received top tier support in version 13.0. Ed Maste explains what this means: "FreeBSD will promote arm64 to a Tier 1 architecture in FreeBSD 13. This means we will provide release images, binary packages, and security and errata updates. While we anticipate there will be minor issues with this first release, we believe the port is mature enough that they can be resolved during the life of FreeBSD 13." Further information can be found in this mailing list post.
* * * * *
The annual elections for Debian's Project Leader position are underway. There are just two people campaigning this time, incumbent Jonathan Carter and challenger Sruthi Chandran. The Debian website provides an overview of the platforms for both candidates. Carter has said he wants to fill in some administrative gaps in the project while Chandran is campaigning with an effort to promote diversity in the Debian developer ranks.
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Kernel panics and filesystem changes
Stuck in a panic asks: What is happening when my system says it's experiencing a kernel panic? What do I do about this?
DistroWatch answers: A kernel panic is basically how the kernel tells you that something has gone wrong, really wrong, and that it either can't recover or can't recover in a way that won't risk making things worse. Since the kernel mostly deals with talking to your computer's hardware, starting the first service (called init), and managing resources, a panic often indicates one of three things:
- Something is wrong with either your hardware or one of the drivers that supports your hardware. Basically the kernel is having trouble talking with your hardware and the situation is bad enough the kernel feels it necessary to hit the eject button rather than continue. This tends to happen either after a kernel upgrade or when switching to a new video driver. Testing your hardware and reverting any recent driver changes will let you know if your computer's hardware is at fault.
- The kernel either was not properly compiled or not properly installed for your system. Maybe a driver is missing or a module wasn't compiled that should have been. Usually Linux distributions allow the user to reboot and select to start the system with the previous kernel to work around this issue.
- Sometimes the init process (the first process to run on the system) failing to start, or crashing after it starts, will cause the kernel to panic. This is because init is supposed to be practically bullet proof and is in charge of some important tasks. If the init process either fails to run or dies that is a sign things have gone very wrong and the kernel may bring down the system. When this happens it probably means the init package either got corrupted or the init executable file is missing. Reinstalling init from a live disc may fix the issue.
Kernel panics are typically rare, unless a cutting edge driver has been installed or the system's hardware is starting to fail. Typically I find rolling back to the previous version of the kernel through the boot menu, and removing any new video drivers, will fix any software issues. If that doesn't correct the problem then it may be time to check, and possibly replace, hardware components.
* * * * *
Seeking a better filesystem asks: Is it possible to switch filesystems without re-installing? I'm running ext4, but heard XFS is better. Is that true and how can I try it out?
DistroWatch answers: Usually it is not possible to change filesystems on your operating system's partition without re-installing. Different filesystems organize data on the disk differently and changing filesystems means a shift in how the data is stored and indexed. This means if you plan to change filesystems you will almost certainly need to backup your data, reformat the partition, re-install the operating system (if you are changing your root filesystem), and then copy your data back from the backup.
There are some rare exceptions where filesystems can be changed without wiping the partition and starting over from scratch. I don't recommend doing this and, if you do decide to try it, first make a backup of any data you want to keep.
The ext2, ext3, and ext4 filesystems are all part of the same family and similar enough that they can be managed with some of the same tools. In fact, older versions of the ext filesystem, like ext3, are handled by the Linux ext4 filesystem driver. It is possible to upgrade from older versions of the filesystem to ext4. The Linux kernel wiki has instructions for making the conversion.
It is also possible to convert an ext2/3/4 filesystem to Btrfs. The btrfs-convert command will transition a filesystem from ext2/3/4 to Btrfs. Again, create a backup before attempting this.
So far as I know there aren't any tools for converting an existing ext4 filesystem to XFS.
That being said, even if there is an ext4-to-XFS utility, I wouldn't recommend making that switch because some people prefer XFS. The mainstream Linux filesystems are all pretty good at what they do - storing and retrieving data - and are pretty fast, robust, and reliable. In most situations there won't be a reason to switch between one and another. In fact, in home and small business environments, you will probably never notice the difference between the popular Linux filesystems. I generally recommend people not switch between one filesystem and another unless they have a good, specific reason for doing so. By which I mean there is a specific feature in XFS (or another filesystem) you are aware of that you need for your operation to run properly and that your default filesystem cannot provide.
For some scenarios XFS may be better than ext4, but you're not likely to run into them unless you're running storage servers or NAS devices. The Red Hat documentation mentions, for example, XFS provides on-line defragmentation and resizing features. There are some other filesystems which can do these things too, and they are useful in organizations that need to dynamically grow their storage capacity. I suspect that might be why people suggested you try XFS.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
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| Released Last Week |
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: 2,392
- Total data uploaded: 37.0TB
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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) |
Do you have a preferred Linux filesystem?
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about popular Linux filesystems, such as XFS and ext4. Do you have a favourite Linux filesystem? Let us know why you use the filesystem you do in the comments.
You can see the results of our previous poll on deciding whether to install a distribution based on its country of origin in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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My preferred Linux filesystem
| Btrfs: | 382 (14%) |
| ext2: | 19 (1%) |
| ext3: | 36 (1%) |
| ext4: | 1734 (63%) |
| JFS: | 31 (1%) |
| Reiserfs: | 24 (1%) |
| XFS: | 158 (6%) |
| Other non-native filesystem module: | 54 (2%) |
| Other FUSE filesystem: | 6 (0%) |
| I am a Linux user without peference: | 299 (11%) |
| I am not a Linux user: | 31 (1%) |
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| Website News |
New distributions added to waiting list
- PluriOS. PluriOS is based on Ubuntu Cinnamon Remix with language translations for Bolivia.
- AzzeraOS. AzzeraOS is a Debian-based distribution for public terminals. The operating system resets itself after each restart and requires a password if users wish to customize the interface.
* * * * *
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 19 April 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)
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| Archives |
| • 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 |
| • 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 |
| • 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 | 
Grml
Grml is a bootable CD (live CD) based on Debian GNU/Linux. It includes a collection of GNU/Linux software especially for users of text tools and system administrators. It also provides automatic hardware detection. Grml can be used as a rescue system, for analysing systems and networks, or as a working environment. Due to on-the-fly decompression, Grml includes about 2 GB of software and documentation on the CD.
Status: Active
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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.
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| Star Labs |
Star Labs - Laptops built for Linux.
View our range including the highly anticipated StarFighter. Available with coreboot open-source firmware and a choice of Ubuntu, elementary, Manjaro and more. Visit Star Labs for information, to buy and get support.
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