 DistroWatch Weekly |
| DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 914, 26 April 2021 |
Welcome to this year's 17th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Most of our computers either use or keep track of sensitive personal information. Our computers process information about who we talk to, what we tell others, our banking information, our taste in music, and our schedules. With this in mind it is important to be able to trust both our computers and the people who have access to them. In our Questions and Answers column this week we talk about tracking who logs into our computer and when. Do you have any programs or log files you use to monitor who is accessing your computer? Let us know about it in this week's Opinion Poll. Also on the subject of trust, we discuss an attempt to insert exploits into the Linux kernel and the response from kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman. Also in our News section we report on DragonFly BSD nearing a new stable release and OPNsense changing its base to FreeBSD. New releases were a big part of this past week with the Ubuntu family publishing version 21.04 of the popular operating system. We share details on this and other releases of the past week below. First though we start this issue with a look at the Manjaro Linux rolling release distribution. Manjaro is a popular desktop platform based on Arch Linux and we share impressions of this project below. We wish you all a terrific week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Manjaro Linux 21.0
- News: DragonFly BSD is being polished leading up to new stable release, OPNsense rebasing to FreeBSD, researchers caught trying to add vulnerabilities to Linux
- Questions and answers: Keeping track of login times
- Released last week: Ubuntu 21.04, Univention Corporate Server 4.4-8, T2 SDE 21.4
- Torrent corner: Bicom Systems, Bluestar, CloudReady, EasyOS, Mabox, Manjaro, RebornOS, T2 SDE, Tails, Univention
- Upcoming releases: Fedora 34
- Opinion poll: Keeping track of users
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (15MB) and MP3 (12MB) formats.
|
| Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Manjaro Linux 21.0
Manjaro Linux is an Arch-based distribution for x86_64 computers which features a graphical system installer (provided by Calamares) and pre-configured desktop environments. The latest snapshot of this rolling release project is Manjaro 21.0 which upgrades the default kernel to Linux 5.10 LTS.
Depending on which desktop edition of the distribution we choose to run we will get to see different new features and improvements. The Xfce edition upgrades the desktop to Xfce 4.16 and offers fractional scaling, as well as the ability to pause and resume file transfers in the Thunar file manager.
The KDE Plasma edition runs Plasma 5.21. The application menu offers two-pane navigation of program launchers. This release also reportedly ships with a new Plasma System Monitor tool and a settings module called Plasma Firewall for blocking unwanted network connections. The Plasma desktop's Wayland support has also been updated.
Manjaro's GNOME edition makes it possible to move application launchers and sort them into folders. GNOME 3.38 can run on multiple displays, each with their own refresh rate. The GNOME edition also offers parental controls through the user account manager.
I decided to try Manjaro's KDE Plasma edition which is a 2.7GB download. Booting from the provided media brings up a menu offering to start the distribution with open source drivers or non-free drivers. Either option loads the Plasma desktop.
Plasma features icons on the desktop for opening a PDF of a user guide and for launching the system installer. The guide includes detailed instructions for obtaining and installing Manjaro along with helpful screenshots. Across the bottom of the display we find a thick desktop panel. On this panel are buttons for opening the application menu, quick-launch buttons for the Dolphin file manager and Firefox, and a system tray.
Shortly after Plasma loads a welcome window appears. This window provides us with access to release notes, on-line documentation, and support forums. There is also a button for launching the distribution's installer.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 206kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Installing
Manjaro uses the Calamares system installer. Calamares provides a friendly graphical user interface which walks us through selecting our language from a list and picking our time zone. The installer correctly guessed my keyboard layout and locale information after I picked my time zone. When it comes to partitioning, Calamares can automatically take over available disk space or walk us through a friendly, manual partitioning tool. The automated option defaults to setting up an ext4 filesystem for Manjaro and no swap space. There is a drop-down box on the guided partitioning page which allows us to switch between having no swap, a swap partition, or a swap file. I opted to use the swap file.
Calamares concludes by asking us to make up a username and password and then copies its files to the hard drive. When it is finished it offers to restart the computer.
Early impressions
My new copy of Manjaro booted to a graphical login screen. The login screen shows the date, available user accounts, and shutdown options. The release announcement mentioned Plasma was making progress in supporting Wayland. However, when I signed into my account I was greeted with Plasma running in an X.Org session. There does not appear to be any way to switch to a Wayland session from the login screen. When I signed into my account the Plasma desktop session loaded. This session seemed very much like the live session, with the notable exception that the desktop icons had disappeared. The welcome screen was still present though.
Each time I logged in a pop-up notification let me know there was an active network connection. Manjaro's default desktop theme is unusually bright, featuring black text on a white background. The desktop's title bars and window borders are white. Scroll bars are grey. This made it hard for me to make out some screen elements and window borders as they all tended to blend together. The desktop wallpaper, panel, and application menu use an opposite, dark look. These elements use white text on a black background. These polar opposites in theme style gave the desktop a slightly inconsistent appearance which can be adjusted through the KDE System Settings panel.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- Running Firefox and exploring the application menu
(full image size: 478kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
In the welcome window I mentioned earlier there are two buttons which relate to software management. One button is labelled Discover Software and it opens the Firefox web browser. We are shown a single page that lists approximately 1,200 applications, shown in alphabetical order. Each application is displayed with its name and an icon. We can click a button to see a screenshot and command line instructions for installing the application using the pacman package manager. Or we can click an Install button and be prompted to run a package installer from the browser. I tested the Install button a few times and found it works, though there are five steps to go through. We need to confirm we want to open the download link, choose which application to run to handle the link, confirm optional dependencies, input our password, and confirm we really want to download the package. This is a little cumbersome, but it does work.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- Installing applications from the welcome window
(full image size: 234kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The second approach to software management the welcome window provides is found by clicking the Applications button. This opens a page inside the welcome window. We are shown a tree list of software categories (16 in total). These categories include titles such as Video, Chat, Backups, Office Suites, E-mail, and Browsers. We can expand the category trees to see a handful of items in each section, usually one to six items are shown. Items already installed have their named displayed in bold font. We can install new items by checking a box next to the name of an application and then clicking a button labelled "UPDATE SYSTEM" at the top of the window. I liked that the welcome window allows us to find and install multiple popular applications all at once.
Hardware
I began testing Manjaro in VirtualBox. The system dynamically resized the Plasma desktop to fit the VirtualBox window. The distribution generally ran smoothly, but was a bit slow at times. In particular, Manjaro was a little slow to boot and notably slow to sign into Plasma. After the desktop launched, Plasma was responsive and everything ran well.
When I switched to trying Manjaro on my laptop, boot times improved and login times were greatly reduced too. Plasma was quite snappy on my laptop and ran well. All of my laptop's hardware was detected and used properly with no issues.
One feature which did bother me though was Plasma would automatically dim the display after five minutes of inactivity, even on AC power. This meant any pause to read or study something would result in the desktop going dark. Later I also found the screen would lock quickly too, also after about five minutes. These short time-outs might make sense on a mobile phone or tablet that needs to save power, but they're irritating on a laptop or workstation running on an AC connection. These features can be adjusted or disabled in the System Settings panel.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- The System Settings panel
(full image size: 174kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Manjaro used a medium amount of memory, about 550MB to sign into Plasma. The distribution is a little larger than average on disk, using 7.5GB of space, plus a little extra for a swap file on my setup.
Applications
Manjaro ships with mostly familiar open source applications, many of them part of the KDE family. The Firefox browser is installed along with the VLC multimedia player, and the K3b disc burning software. The Konversation chat client is present along with the Cantata music player. There is a launcher for the Steam gaming portal and KDE Connect for communicating with mobile devices.
The Okular document viewer is present along with the Calibre e-book manager. There is a tool called AppImageLauncher Settings which adjusts how AppImage bundles integrate with the rest of the system.
The KDE System Settings panel is included to help us customize the look and feel of the desktop. There are a lot of options to be found in the System Settings tool and fortunately a search feature is included. Timeshift is installed for us to help manage backups and snapshots, though Timeshift is somewhat limited in its utility on the default ext4 filesystem. The Dolphin file manager is present along with the new system monitor mentioned in the release announcement. The system monitor does a nice job of presenting an overview of the system's disk, memory, processor, and network resource consumption.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- The new system monitor running in VirtualBox
(full image size: 225kB, resolution: 1320x691 pixels)
Exploring further we find manual pages for command line utilities and the systemd init software. Version 5.10 of the Linux kernel is installed for us.
Manjaro includes some additional command line aliases which I usually do not encounter on other distributions. Most of these are fine and perhaps useful, but a few conflicted with my usual command line parameters or caused different programs to be run than what I had typed and I found that frustrating until I removed the extra aliases.
Searching the application menu for any program which was not already installed would bring up a launcher which, when clicked, would open the Pamac software manager. Pamac would then give us the option of downloading the missing application. I like this feature as it allows us to skip the steps of clearing the original menu search and launching the software centre instead, then searching for the application we want. It's a small, but useful time saver.
The project's release announcement mentioned a new tool called Plasma Firewall. I could not find this new utility in the application menu or in the System Settings panel. Searches for "firewall" returned no results in either location. The Plasma application menu would offer to download a firewall for me, though it turned out to be the standard firewalld utility.
Software management
Software management on Manjaro is primarily handled by Pamac, which is referred to as Add/Remove Software in the application menu. Pamac features three tabs: Browse, Installed, and Updates. The Updates tab displays new versions of software and allows us to install these new packages. The Installed tab lists applications already on the system which we can remove with a button click. The Browse tab displays groups of software.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- The Pamac software manager
(full image size: 222kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Which grouping of software we see in the Browse tab is controlled by a drop-down menu. We can then use another drop-down to select the sorting preference. For instance, we can look at Featured items in order of size, or view multimedia software in alphabetical order. This works pretty well, with Pamac displaying lists of applications with their icon and we can click a button next to items we want to queue for installation. Once we have built up a queue we can click a button to download everything we selected.
Pamac worked well for me. I stumbled a little while trying to find some applications, particularly alternative web browsers. I found that e-mail clients and web browsers are grouped in the Productivity category.
Apart from Pamac and its underlying package manager, pacman, Manjaro also includes support for Flatpak and Snap bundles out of the box. The Flatpak framework is set up with access to the popular Flathub repository, making it quick and easy to get access to portable packages.
Other observations
Once when I was trying to unlock the screen after being away from the keyboard for a while, the session seemed to crash, logging me out. I signed back in to Plasma and the desktop was entirely black with no panel, no wallpaper, and no icons. There was just a mouse pointer and the welcome screen. I was unable to click or right-click on anything and had to force a logout. After a restart I was able to sign back into Plasma and continue as before.
I tried using the Cantata music player. Cantata detects my collection of music, though it fails to play MP3 files. Attempting to play a file resulted in an error indicating there was a problem contacting the music daemon and that it may be misconfigured. Using another media player worked without any problems.
Manjaro Linux 21.0 -- The Cantata music player
(full image size: 198kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
Conclusions
Manjaro is often viewed as a desktop variant of Arch Linux with some added utilities and some extra testing for packages with the aim of improving stability. I feel that Manjaro not only lives up to this reputation, but surpasses it. Getting Manjaro set up, getting it configured the way I like it, and using it for common day-to-day tasks all went smoothly. The distribution is pleasantly easy to use, the Plasma desktop is both highly flexible and responsive, and all my hardware worked well with this operating system.
The Pamac software manager has sometimes given me trouble in the past, most notably last month with the Peux OS distribution. This time around Pamac worked very well, offering a smooth and friendly experience.
I really like the way searches for missing programs in the application menu return launchers to open the software centre and display the page of the program we want to run. This may seem like a small feature but it's one I will use a lot the first week with a new system.
I did run into one problem with the Plasma desktop apparently crashing after the screen was locked. This happened just the once and I couldn't reproduce the issue. Otherwise Manjaro was pleasantly stable.
One complaint I had this week was that some of the features mentioned in the release announcement were absent from the default install. The improved application menu and system monitor tool were present and were breaths of fresh air, as advertised. Kudos to everyone involved with those. However, there was also mention of a firewall tool which seems to be missing (or not showing up in my searches of the application menu and System Settings), and one of the key features was better Wayland support. However, there doesn't appear to be a Wayland session available by default. I could install it, but if it's an optional add-on then it seems overkill to mention it in the release announcement as a key new feature.
Apart from those minor concerns, Manjaro provided a solid experience. The installer is easy to use, the welcome screen and documentation are pleasant and friendly, the distribution offers great performance on physical hardware, and there are some nice bits of polish and convenient features included. I like the little conveniences in the application menu, I like how quick and easy Pamac is to use, and I liked how customizable Plasma is. I did spend some time early on getting rid of applications I don't need and installing items I do use on a regular basis, but these were mostly personal preference switches. In the end I was really happy with Manjaro, it is both up to date and pleasantly boring to use.
* * * * *
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
Manjaro Linux has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.1/10 from 412 review(s).
Have you used Manjaro Linux? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
|
| Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
DragonFly BSD is being polished leading up to new stable release, OPNsense rebasing to FreeBSD, researchers caught trying to add vulnerabilities to Linux
The DragonFly BSD project is gearing up for a new release. Justin Sherrill has reported that DragonFly BSD is entering release candidate status and a stable release of version 6.0 is expected by the end of the month. "The first RC for DragonFly 6.0 is branched. I don't expect a need for a second one; this release has been a long time baking (look at the commit list!) and is pretty well refined."
* * * * *
OPNsense is a specialist operating system for firewalls and routers. OPNsense has historically been based on HardenedBSD which offered some extra security features. However, HardenedBSD has a relatively small userbase and development team which has made supporting the operating system more difficult. The OPNsense team has decided to switch to FreeBSD as their upstream base. "With FreeBSD 13 released and the gaining interest for security, we think it is now time to change our strategy a bit and focus our efforts further on FreeBSD to help improve security as much as we can. In time there is a risk that HardenedBSD additions are less compatible with new FreeBSD security features. For this reason we are aiming to incorporate FreeBSD 13.x into OPNsense 22.1 in January 2022."
* * * * *
The Linux kernel's source code, like most open source projects, can be read by anyone and is open to new contributors who want to send in improvements. This raises the concern in many people's minds as to what happens if a malicious actor attempts to insert vulnerabilities or exploits into key open source projects. Researchers at the University of Minnesota decided to find out. In a paper on open source security [PDF] the researchers discuss submitting patches with known issues to open source projects like the Linux kernel. Patches with known issues were then submitted to the kernel team, discovered, and removed. One of the lead kernel maintainers, Greg Kroah-Hartman, published a firm reply to the submissions: "A few minutes with anyone with the semblance of knowledge of C can see that your submissions do NOT do anything at all, so to think that a tool created them, and then that you thought they were a valid fix is totally negligent on your part, not ours. You are the one at fault, it is not our job to be the test subjects of a tool you create. Our community welcomes developers who wish to help and enhance Linux. That is NOT what you are attempting to do here..."
* * * * *
These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
|
| Questions and Answers (by Jesse Smith) |
Keeping track of login times
Tracking-computer-usage asks: How can I find out how long each person who uses my computer was logged in?
DistroWatch answers: Information on who logged in, when they logged in, and how long their session lasted is all stored in log files, typically under the /var/log directory. The names of the specific log files may change from one distribution to another, but usually the desired information can be found in /var/log/wtmp. The login accounting information is typically accessed using the last command. The last program shows us who logged in, which terminal they used, their IP address (if they were signed in from a remote computer), the date they signed in, the time they signed out, and how long their session lasted. A line from the last program may look like this:
| jesse |
tty7 |
0.0.0.0 |
Fri Sep 4 17:10 - |
down |
(3+20:57) |
Here we can see that user jesse logged into terminal tty7, which is usually the graphical desktop. The login was done locally, which is why the IP address contains only zeros. The session started at 5:10pm on September 4th and continued until the system was shutdown. The session lasted three days, twenty hours, and fifty-seven minutes.
By default, last shows login and session times for every user. We can see login session information for just one specific user at a time by adding their username to the command line. For example, we can see just Susan's login information by running:
last susan
If you are curious about finding login session information for a specific date, then we can use the grep command to filter results to just one day. This example displays all login information for Jesse on the 21st of February:
last jesse | grep "Feb 21"
Should you wish to browse through the login session information, combing through the data manually, you can see a page of the last information at a time by running:
last | less
The above command will let you scroll forwards and backwards through the login information, a line or a page at a time.
* * * * *
Additional answers can be found in our Questions and Answers archive.
|
| Released Last Week |
Univention Corporate Server 4.4-8
Univention Corporate Server is an enterprise-class distribution based on Debian. It features an integrated management system for central administration of servers. The distribution's latest release is Univention Corporate Server 4.4-8 which improves the performance of the distribution's web-based services and paves the way for a smooth upgrade from the 4.4 series to 5.0. "The performance of the UMC web server in large environments where there are many requests has improved. For this purpose, the UMC web server has changed from single to multi-processing. Thus, it can no longer run in one process only, but in several processes, to actively use several CPU cores, at the same time. The number of processes used is configurable and should not exceed the available CPU cores. In particular, large UCS environments with many login requests in a short period benefit from this change. Advanced Parameterization of Docker-based Apps. App developers from the Univention App Center can now store the call command for their Docker-based apps as a UCR template. Therefore, they can enable further parameters for their app." Additional information can be found in the company's release announcement.
Ubuntu 21.04
Canonical has released Ubuntu 21.04 which carries the code name "Hirsute Hippo". The distribution's new version ships with GNOME running on a Wayland session as the default desktop and includes the built-in ability to join Active Directory domains. "Ubuntu machines can join an Active Directory (AD) domain at installation for central configuration. AD administrators can now manage Ubuntu workstations, which simplifies compliance with company policies. Ubuntu 21.04 adds the ability to configure system settings from an AD domain controller. Using a Group Policy Client, system administrators can specify security policies on all connected clients, such as password policies and user access control, and Desktop environment settings, such as login screen, background and favourite apps. Ubuntu 21.04 uses Wayland by default, a significant leap forward in security. Firefox, OBS Studio and many applications built with Electron and Flutter take advantage of Wayland automatically, for smoother graphics and better fractional scaling." Additional details can be found in the distribution's release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu 21.04 -- Running the default GNOME desktop
(full image size: 1.0MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Ubuntu Budgie 21.04
Ubuntu Budgie is an Ubuntu-based distribution featuring the Budgie desktop. The Ubuntu Budgie team has released version 21.04 of their distribution which will receive support through to January 2022. The new release includes a new look, an updated Budgie desktop, and introduces a build for Raspberry Pi computers. "This is a regular release supported for 9 months. For those looking for a longer term support release we recommend our 20.04 LTS version which is supported for 3 years. Key highlights: Release of our first Raspberry Pi image. Thanks to new team member Sam, we are very proud of the work done and the positive feedback received from all beta testers. A huge 21.04 regular release: brand new budgie-desktop version. Layouts capability of our Window Shuffler. Refinements of our own unique Window Tiling capability - we have also received feedback that this works on Mate, GNOME Shell (Xorg), XFCE. So do give 'Window Shuffler' a try on your desktop. Brand new Mojave makeover in Budgie Themes and Layouts Brand new WhiteSur makeover in Budgie Themes and Layouts." Additional information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04
Martin Wimpress has announced the release of Ubuntu MATE 21.04. The new version offers nine months of support and includes several visual changes. "The MATE Desktop team released maintenance updates for the current stable 1.24 release of MATE. We've updated the MATE packaging in Debian to incorporate all these bug fixes and translation updates and synced those packages to Ubuntu so they all feature in this 21.04 release. There are no new features, just fixes. Ayatana Indicators: A highlight of the Ubuntu MATE 20.10 release was the transition to Ayatana Indicators. You can read the 20.10 release notes to learn what Ayatana Indicators are and why this transition will be beneficial in the long term. We've added new versions of Ayatana Indicators including 'Indicators' settings to the Control Center, which can be used to configure the installed indicators." Further information can be found in the project's release announcement and in the release notes.
Ubuntu MATE 21.04 -- Running the default MATE desktop
(full image size: 1.9MB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Ubuntu Studio 21.04
The Ubuntu Studio team have announced the release of version 21.04 of their multimedia-focused distribution. The project's latest release will be supported through to January 2022 and includes several updated utilities: "This release includes Plasma 5.21.4, the full-featured desktop environment made by KDE. It uses the Materia theme and the icons are Papirus icons. Studio Controls has seen further development as its own independent project and has been updated to version 2.1.4. Ardour 6.6+ (a future 6.7 snapshot). Ardour has been updated to version 6.6+, meaning this is a git snapshot of what will eventually be Ardour 6.7. This had to be done because Ardour 6.5 started to fail to build with a newer library introduced into the Ubuntu archives, and could only be resolved with this snapshot. We hope to have Ardour 6.7 in via official updates once released. Agordejo is new to Ubuntu Studio this release. It was brought-in for those unsatisfied with RaySession's audio session management but found New Session Manager's interface to be too old and clunky." Additional details can be found in the project's release announcement.
Kubuntu 21.04
Rik Mills has announced the release of Kubuntu 21.04, a brand-new version of the project's official Ubuntu flavour featuring the KDE Plasma desktop: "The Kubuntu team is happy to announce that Kubuntu 21.04 LTS has been released, featuring the 'beautiful' KDE Plasma 5.21: simple by default, powerful when needed. Code-named 'Hirsute Hippo', Kubuntu 21.04 continues our tradition of giving you friendly computing by integrating the latest and greatest open-source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution. The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs. Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 5.11-based Linux kernel, KDE Frameworks 5.80, KDE Plasma 5.21 and KDE Release Service Applications 20.12.3. Krita, Kdevelop, Yakuake and many many more applications are updated." Read the resto of the release announcement for more information.
Xubuntu 21.04
Yousuf Philips has announced the release of Xubuntu 21.04, a new stable build of the distribution that integrates the Ubuntu base system with the latest Xfce desktop: "The Xubuntu team is happy to announce the immediate release of Xubuntu 21.04. Xubuntu 21.04, code-named 'Hirsute Hippo', is a regular release and will be supported for 9 months, until January 2022. Highlights: Xfce 4.16 - this is Xubuntu's first release with the new GTK 3-only Xfce 4.16, which features a year's worth of updates and fixes; new software - Xubuntu now comes pre-installed with HexChat and Synaptic to provide easy IRC communication and advanced package management; minimal install - you can now install a minimal version of the Xubuntu desktop through the ubiquity installer; UX tweaks - a number of User Experience (UX) tweaks were made on the desktop, application menu, panel, keyboard shortcuts and file manager. Known issues - the boot decryption password prompt is sometimes not displayed, press Escape twice to reveal the prompt." See the full release announcement for more information.
Xubuntu 21.04 -- Running the default Xfce desktop
(full image size: 239kB, resolution: 1920x1080 pixels)
Lubuntu 21.04
Dan Simmons has announced the release of Lubuntu 21.04, an updated version of the project's lightweight distribution with LXQt as its preferred desktop: "Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 21.04 has been released. With the code name 'Hirsute Hippo', Lubuntu 21.04 is the 20th release of Lubuntu, the sixth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment. Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project's goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release: LXQt 0.16.0 - with many improvements over 0.15; LXQt Archiver 0.3.0 which is based on Engrampa, is now included; Qt 5.15.2; Mozilla Firefox 87.0...." Here is the full release announcement.
T2 SDE 21.4
T2 SDEis an open source system development environment. T2 allows the creation of custom distributions with bleeding edge technology. The project's latest release, version 21.4, expands T2 SDE to support 15 CPU architectures, including ARM, PowerPC, RISCV, SPARC64, and x86_64. The project has also upgraded development packages and libraries, including the GNU compiler and Rust. Hardware support has been expanded by including version 5.11 of the Linux kernel. "Today the T2 System Development Environment Linux 21.4 was released, with the largest amount of pre- and cross-compiled set of architectures releases ever! A total of 15 architectures: x86-64, x86, arm64, arm, riscv64, riscv, ppc64le, ppc64-32, ppc sparc64, mips64, mipsel, hppa, m68k, alpha and ia64! The 21.4 release received updates across the board, while a major working target was adding new architecture support for RISCV(32), as further improving cross compilation and support for vintage retro system like the Sony PS3 and Sgi Octane, but also DEC Alpha and Intel IA64. Low memory optimizations allow the 32-bit x86 variant to boot on 486 with as little as 48MB of RAM." Information on this release can be found on the project's home page.
* * * * *
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: 2,413
- Total data uploaded: 37.2TB
|
| Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
|
Summary of expected upcoming releases
|
| Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Keeping track of users
In this week's Questions and Answers column we talked about keeping track of user login times and how long each session lasted. People often want to keep track of their own computer usage or that of their children or employees. Do you use any software or log files to keep track of who is using your systems and when?
You can see the results of our previous poll on protecting files from yourself in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
|
I keep track of user logins using
| Log files: | 142 (13%) |
| a specific application: | 19 (2%) |
| a custom program or script: | 15 (1%) |
| I do not track login information: | 940 (84%) |
|
|
| Website News |
DistroWatch database summary
* * * * *
This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 3 May 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: 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 | 
APODIO
APODIO is a Linux live and installation DVD with a large collection of open source audio and video software, as well as graphical utilities for making system administration as simple and intuitive as possible. It is based on Ubuntu.
Status: Dormant
|
| 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 
